Architecture design guide for better building practices

•

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The BC Energy Step Code is a provincial regulation that local governments in British Columbia, may use to incentivize or require a level of energy efficiency in new construction that goes above and beyond the requirements of the base building code.

This guide, funded and commissioned by BC Housing, BC Hydro, the City of Vancouver, the City of New Westminster, and the Province of British Columbia, was developed to help local governments and industry understand the benefits and impacts of the key design strategies and approaches necessary to achieve each step of the standard.

PROJECT BRIEF

Introba (formerly Integral Group) engaged our team to develop the content into a well-formatted and accessible illustrated guide. Visual tools such as colour and type styles had been established as part of the BC Energy Step Code's brand development. Using these elements, our task was to develop a clean layout accompanied by clear, easy-to-read illustrations, organized into a format optimized for on-screen viewing, and printing.

FORMAT

The document was designed on an 11 x 17 inch landscape sheet to allow detailed diagrams and tables to be viewed at scale when printed. When output as an indexed PDF, the format is highly effective for on-screen viewing.

DEVELOPING THE VISUAL LANGUAGE

When determining an illustrative style for the guide, we had to consider how to communicate: building types; design strategies; and detailed implementation tactics, in a clear, visually consistent manner. The technique had to be versatile.

A combination of orthographic and isometric projections offered the versatility needed to communicate complex issues in a simple, engaging fashion.

COVER DESIGN

Each guide is differentiated by the graphics composed within the cover illustration. The layout of the cover was designed to work in both portrait and landscape orientations.

ICONOGRAPHY

A set of icons were developed for use throughout the guide. The icons allow for quick referencing of building types, metrics, and hazards within tables, charts and illustrations.

Icons were designed to intuitively depict the building type, metric or hazard they were representing. Since icons would often appear small on tables, charts or situational illustrations, the scalability of the icons was carefully considered during the design phase.