Programs
DeCon Hackathon
Design firms don’t have time to create (or modify existing) standard details to be deconstruction-friendly, so the power of community can help!
DeCon Hackathons are virtual gatherings of professionals who collaboratively create details that live in a public library so that any firm can copy and adapt to their own practice and make it easier!
(to join the next one, send an email to [email protected] and put “DeCon Hackathon” in the subject line!)
- Participants span architecture, interior design, engineering, construction, reuse professionals and policy
- Choose the details you want to work on with others
- Work on more than one, as you wish
- Current focuses include: Parking Garages, Interior Assemblies, Façades, Roofing, MEP/ductwork, Ceiling Assemblies, Flooring Systems, FF&E items, Non-technical (policy), Other
- Come back any time to the public DeCon Library to add or borrow!
- Have FUN!! DeCon Hackathons are a great way to make this work more enjoyable!
Originally done in collaboration with the CLF Boston Hub’s Reuse group!
Some examples of work in progress:
Innovation Exchange
BuildingEase is your source to find the coolest new innovations coming to the building industry! See bleeding edge technologies before they come to market, then keep tabs on pilot projects, product reviews and lessons learned as they are adopted in the marketplace.
What’s new in the world of decarbonizing, biogenic materials and more?!!!
Amazing innovations are happening every day – but adoption of new technology is a challenge for both adopters and tech innovators! Building owners and their project teams don’t want to take chances on unproven technology, so de-risking is critical. New tech has a hard time getting to market at scale.
It’s hard for large, existing companies to innovate easily – when times are good, they are flat out meeting demand. When business is slow, investing in R&D feels risky. That’s where we come in!
Here’s how we are helping:
- Innovation Exchange virtual events and community feedback: See 5 min pitches from new tech and owners/project teams have the opportunity to ask questions or give feedback.
- A “dating site” for large, existing companies and new tech to find each other, coming soon!
- Peer feedback: our main platform lets people rate and review technologies of all kinds and for new tech in particular, and specifically, peers can hear from peers (facilities staff can hear from their peers, etc).
- When new tech finds pilot opportunities – those pilots share their experience on the platform so all can benefit!
- Collaboration with startups, accelerators and university R&D gives us a pipeline to the hottest new tech.
- Get to market: BuildingEase is the only Global Buyer’s Club for building materials and touches every sector in the building industry. We help new products (and small, W/MBE companies) scale and sell faster!
Startups, Lab or Academic R&D Groups: get industry feedback and find potential pilot partners.
Investors: see what’s coming and also see what the actual industry feedback is, for due diligence.
Manufacturers: find (sub)components that you might want to license to transform your supply chain!
Building Owners: Pilot and de-risk new solutions, provide reviews and feedback to the community.
Below is a sampling of some cool new companies – many more to come.
You will be able to search by interest area – decarbonizing, biogenic materials, water quality etc.
Sign up for Pitch Nights by sending an email to [email protected] and use the subject line: Innovation Exchange or Pitch Night or just keep getting our newsletters!
Hydronic Shell
Put a Coat on Your Existing Building!
Hydronic Shell prefabricated panels include all the elements necessary for heating, cooling and ventilation to each unit in a multi-unit residential building, hotels or for perimeter loads in offices, schools or warehouses. The piping and ductwork in each panel connects to vertical risers to form a complete HVAC system enclosed within the new façade. Existing building upgrades without disrupting current occupants!
Power2peer
Peer Powered Clean Energy Marketplace
P2PConnect is a mobile app that’s opening up entirely new opportunities in the renewable energy sector. Through P2PConnect’s secure trading platform, producers of solar, wind, and other forms of clean energy will be connected to consumers who wish to purchase from them. No longer will excess solar power be wasted during peak sunlight hours; with P2PConnect, every kilowatt will find an outlet.
AeroMINE™
Motionless Building-Mounted Wind Turbines
AeroMINE™ is a new category in an existing market, harvesting wind energy, installed on the edge of a roof, without any motion. It is safe, reliable, quiet and has limited visual impact. This technology is easily deployable and can operate in extreme climates. 10 Units have a nameplate capacity of 50 kW. The units stand 3m tall and are spaced 5m apart. AeroMINE™ is more powerful and cheaper than solar energy but can be installed adjacent. A typical 18,000 sq. ft. building could displace 55 ton CO2 per year.
Gravinky Labs AIR-INK®
Turn Air Pollution into Inks, Paints, Coatings and construction materials!
Black, the most commonly used color, is produced with a large carbon footprint that contributes to 4.2 million deaths from air pollution worldwide. Graviky labs’ AIR-INK® is made from captured carbon emissions, then our patented device captures particulate matter and turns it into a safe, water-based ink. 700 tonnes of carbon = 20,000 liters of AIR-INK! The more ink we make, the better our air.
#tide Ocean Material
Turning Ocean Plastic into New Products!
We collect the plastics from oceans that threaten sea life and turn them into new sustainable products. Instead of harmful waste, this plastic becomes part of a circular economy! We train local fisherman and pay them to gather and sort plastic waste. The material is registered, washed and shredded in a social enterprise. With Swiss precision and solar energy, we upcycle (PET), (PP) and (PE) into a versatile granular material which can be used for plastic injection for watches, furniture, electronic devices, automotive parts and any type of hard plastic product. Our #tide yarn can be used for apparel, bags, shoes, home & office interiors and any other project using high quality polyester textiles.
Teratonix Ambient Energy Harvesting
Free Energy! It’s literally in the air all around us!
Radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic energy is all around us – from cell towers, wifi routers, radio and TV broadcasts. In typical suburban environments, there is enough ambient RF energy to power a majority of sensors, processors and more in our buildings. We harvest these wasted energies and can wirelessly power billions of deployed devices.
Crowdsource Group Genius
Design firms don’t have time to create (or modify existing) standard details to be deconstruction-friendly, so the power of community can help!
DeCon Hackathons are virtual gatherings of professionals who all create details that live in a public library so that any firm can copy and adapt to their own practice and make it easier!
(to join the next one, send an email to [email protected] and put “DeCon Hackathon” in the subject line!)
- Participants span architecture, interior design, engineering, construction, reuse professionals and policy
- Choose the details you want to work on with others
- Work on more than one, as you wish
- Current focuses include: Parking Garages, Interior Assemblies, Façades, Roofing, MEP/ductwork, Ceiling Assemblies, Flooring Systems, FF&E items, Non-technical (policy), Other
- Come back any time to the public DeCon Library to add or borrow!
Originally done in collaboration with the CLF Boston Hub’s Reuse group!
Passive House
Public Sector
(3 Equal)
Lower Carbon
Biogenic
Design for Freedom
Innovative
(New to Market)
Circular Potential
Living Product Challenge
Healthier Adhesives
FM Global Compliant
Virtual Tours
Don’t you wish all the coolest projects were easy to visit? What can you learn from trail-blazing projects? Virtual tours give you an opportunity to visit these amazing projects, but more than that – to learn from them! Our tours will let you explore these projects and their design strategies on your own but in addition, you’ll hear from:
Owners: Why they committed to doing this, what they learned in the process.
Design team: How they accomplished a project that is not “business as usual”
Construction partner: What we all need to understand about construction for projects like these
Manufacturers: Why they’ve committed to making healthy products and lessons learned from the manufacturing side of the experience.
In addition to getting inspiration and hearing lessons learned – these amazing case studies are fantastic ways to help inspire (and convince!) others to strive for similar outcomes!
Tours let you explore:
- A Matterport self-guided tours (or pre-planned tours – as you choose)
- Click on tags to explore specific strategies used in design, construction and operations
- Click on products you want to learn more about
- Click on short videos from each of the stakeholders to hear their stories and lessons learned for this project
- Come back any time to the public DeCon Library to add or borrow!
This program is currently in collaboration with International Living Building Institute (ILFI) for Living Buildings.
Creating a virtual tour may fulfill obligation for LBC credit for an educational video describing the project’s Living Building challenge features.
These virtual tours are also fantastic marketing content for everyone involved!
If you were part of an LBC project and would like to find out more about this program, email [email protected] to talk to us!
NEXT STEPS:
What do you need to do to make an inspiring virtual tour a reality?
There is very little work on your end to make tours a reality! We make it easy for you!
Once this information has been gathered and we do the work, we will provide you with an opportunity for final review before making the tour public.
Matterport Recording:
The video recording typically takes 4-8 hours and can be done either in one day, or if your building is being used and different spaces are empty at different times, we can schedule shooting times on different days.
Usually, we do not shoot every space in the entire building. Classrooms are a good example. There is no need to shoot every classroom, but if there are radically different typical rooms, you may choose to show two typical layouts. Mechanical rooms or equipment spaces are also possible, if there are stories of interest to tell there about energy, heat recovery or similar. The owner and/or project team can decide which spaces they want to highlight and provide our team with a list of room names and numbers (outside spaces can be included) and any preferred sequence they would like.
Individual Stories
In addition to inspiring people with the architecture of the project, we want to highlight the stories behind the building. The owner, design team and construction team can share why they chose to do what they did and share key lessons learned. These videos can be self-recorded at your convenience and provided to us afterwards. Videos should not exceed 5 minutes and each stakeholder does their own. Technical specifications will be shared with you.
The same is true for key manufacturers. They can tell their stories to inspire others to follow the same path.
Products
The owner and/or project team can determine which products they want to highlight. Once the list is provided, we can reach out to these manufacturers and invite them to create their own 5 minute video stories. The products will also be highlighted in the Matterport video with clickable ‘tags’ that allow visitors to learn more in depth about the product!