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• Architecture
• Interior Design
• Sustainability

• Avinash Rajagopal
• Building Products
• Circularity in products
• Climate Adaptation
• Cupaclad
• Glen-Gery
• Guardian Glass
• Jeld-Wen
• Kawneer
• Longboard Products
• Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope
• Stone Bricks

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• Workplace

• Anthros
• Emerging Talents
• Ergonomics
• Jaxson Stone
• Task Chair

At ThinkLab we spend our days researching the ecosystem of the built environment. We geek out over the product specification process and the changes happening at the intersection of product and design. Here’s the tension we’ve uncovered when it comes to prioritizing sustainability in projects:

ThinkLab’s latest U.S. Design Industry Benchmark Report found that 84 percent of commercial architects and designers say client demand for healthy spaces and sustainable products has increased or greatly increased. At the same time, sustainability is rising in product-attribute importance, jumping from seventh to fifth place. 

Additionally, among the specifier archetypes identified in ThinkLab’s industry-persona study, which it first introduced in 2022, the “Sustainability First” persona now constitutes 10 percent of the design population (double its share in the previous year). 

Seeing these stats, you may think, “Wow, a move in the right direction for sustainability!” And while that may be true, it may not be in the way you’d expect. Here’s why:

We asked those making decisions—for their own spaces or on behalf of clients—what their top priority was when selecting products. “Ease of doing business” was the core concern for end users, dealer designers, and traditional architecture and design firms. 

The reality is, and research tells us, that “ease of doing business” has to be foundational for end users, followed by “financial goals.” You could think of it like Maslow’s hierarchy of sustainable specification needs. Unless that foundation is there, sustainability considerations become challenging for most clients. While the first few stats I shared feel warmer and fuzzier, we think understanding the reality of product selection can empower you for these reasons:

RECOGNIZE YOUR IMPACT AND INFLUENCE 

The average designer now has 40 times more specification power than the average American consumer has buying power. And it can be as high as 140 times for INTERIOR DESIGN Giants of Design (specifiers from the top 200 firms). Additionally, METROPOLIS has found that by 2050, the interior design industry will have influence over almost one-tenth of the world’s carbon emissions, owing to how often interior spaces are renovated throughout the life cycle of a building.

HARNESS YOUR POWER AND INFLUENCE EFFECTIVELY 

If it were as easy as toggling a few filters to find the most sustainable choices, we wouldn’t see as much tension as we currently do. While there are great resources for designers to search and compare across different impact categories for new products, the bigger picture of the selection process is more nuanced: Is reused better than new when considering embodied carbon? Reused products can be harder to find, and my billable hours are finite. I want to use biobased products, but will they be durable enough for this application? Here are a few resources that can help with decision support:

• Comparing products: The mindful MATERIALS platform includes details such as material composition, environmental certifications, and health-related information, allowing users to compare and evaluate products based on their sustainability criteria. Visit mindfulmaterials.com. 

• Sourcing reused: All for Reuse has created a Reuse Ecosystem Map to help connect architects and designers with suppliers and organizations that offer reused building products or related services. Explore at allforreuse.org/ecosystem-map.

• Measuring impact: One Click LCA is life cycle assessment software that measures embodied carbon in your projects. Learn more here. 

ADVOCATE FOR SUSTAINABLE SELECTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF YOUR CLIENT’S PRIORITIES 

ThinkLab’s latest industry research has centered on changes in customer decision-making. We’ve found that getting to consensus is harder than ever, and clients will go to great lengths to reduce their risk in an increasingly complex process. 

Even if your firm has a strong stance on sustainability, remember that your client’s career may depend on the success of this project. And success may not mean the same thing to them as it does to you. Should we all care about health, wellness, and sustainability more than anything else? A resounding yes. But given that the most sustainable option is not building anything, we’re all living in a gray area. 

How can you make a client care about sustainability? We believe the more powerful question is, How can I reframe the sustainability conversation around what matters most to my client? That’s where the magic happens. 

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• Research

• Circularity in products
• Embodied Carbon
• Healthy Materials
• Meredith Campbell
• Research
• sustainability
• ThinkLab

When you Google images of San Miguel de Allende, historic buildings awash in a rainbow of colors are likely what you’ll find. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is unsurprisingly enchanting, bringing in over a million visitors annually. Yet gentrification has made some central spaces more affordable for expats and tourists than for its residents. 

To create Santa Tere Espacio, a coworking and social hub geared toward locals, Oficina de Diseño Colaborativo teamed up with Maye Colab and Atelier TBD to transform a once-abandoned six-room home in the city’s San Antonio neighborhood. 

“From the beginning, we conceived a space where Maye [Ruiz of Maye Colab] and I could share offices but also a space that the creative community of San Miguel can use for any purpose,” says Nadyeli Quiroz Radaelli, founder of Oficina de Diseño Colaborativo. Since opening last year, Santa Tere Espacio has hosted several workshops, book clubs, photography exhibitions, and LGBTQ+-centered events. There’s even a bookshop, Camila, Una Boutique de Libros, run out [of] one of the three studios. 

If rendering software exists to convey your design to someone who can’t see inside your head, then it should do that in the most realistic of ways. Lumion’s 2024 release comes with enhanced ray-tracing capabilities that simulate how light behaves when it hits materials like glass, translucent materials like onyx, and natural elements like grass or tree leaves. The latest version includes color glass shadows, new glass material properties, and parallax interiors to help you render windows and create the illusion of a 3D interior. In a bid to remove any friction between your imagination and the final product, the system has also been enhanced to produce video renders five times faster than the previous version. Ultimately Lumion 2024 wants to blur the line between reality and rendered image, offering unparalleled photo-realistic render and real-time visual feedback on your 3D model. 
lumion.com

02 POWERFUL PRECISION WITH COLOR 

Color matching has come a long way. The Nix Spectro L is a spectrophotometer that lets you measure the color of any surface on the go. The device is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but despite its compact size, it packs all the features of a standard spectrophotometer. You can pair it with a free app, create custom libraries, scan down to 16 mm samples, and leverage data like delta-e, spectral reflectance curve, ink density, RGB, CMYK, and over 300,000 paint colors from a multitude of brands. Its size and affordable price ($479) make it an ideal companion for creative professionals in the print and packaging industries, as well as graphic artists and designers. Think of it as the real-life equivalent of the Photoshop eyedropper tool—one that happens to look cute too. 
nixsensor.com

03 COUNTERTOPS YOU CAN COOK ON 

Porcelain countertops are having a moment in the kitchen. They are durable and easy to clean, and thanks to their fabrication at over 2,000° F, porcelain surfaces can hold their own when you place a hot pan on them. Caesarstone’s Ooak Porcelain Collection lets you do exactly that, except instead of simply resting your hot pan on your countertop, you can actually cook on the countertop—any surface from the collection can be paired with an invisible induction system underneath. You can turn the burners on via a discreet control tucked away in the drawer below, guide your pan on the surface until you hear a beep, and start cooking your meal. When the guests arrive, turn that same countertop into a full spread with drinks, appetizers, and absolutely no sign of a burner. 
caesarstoneus.com

04 ROBOTS TO RECLAIM WOOD 

Timber is one of the most sustainable materials architects can build with, but in the quest to decarbonize the built environment, global demand for wood could grow fourfold by 2050. Reclaimed wood offers an interesting alternative as it helps lower the carbon footprint associated with virgin wood and helps architects salvage timber that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Urban Machine uses AI and robots to remove old nails and fasteners from lumber so it can be reused in other buildings. Dubbed “The Machine,” it consists of a portable system that can process lumber directly on construction or demolition sites. First, a machine learning algorithm calculates the quantity and quality of wood that can be recovered from each site. Then the system uses metal detectors to locate metallic elements for the robotic hands to extract. Finally, wire brushes polish the surface and “The Machine” performs a quality check to ensure the lumber is ready for a second life. 
urbanmachine.build

05 LANDSCAPES TO COOL THE PLANET 

The built environment is responsible for 39 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. What if we could curb those emissions before building projects even begin? Such is the aspiration of Urban Decarb, a new digital tool that helps landscape architects and urban planners calculate the carbon footprint of their designs, site and context considered, as early as the 3D modeling phase, then visualize which elements of their design have the highest carbon footprint and which have the lowest. Danish architecture firm Henning Larsen designed Urban Decarb, which is meant to aid in analyzing carbon footprints at the urban scale, using built-in assemblies for buildings and infrastructural elements like pavements, roads, and landscapes. It even considers projects’ geographical location and helps designers compare various scenarios—and their respective carbon footprints—in real time. The ultimate goal? To encourage designers to continually question their decisions and help them reassess before the concept has left the computer. 
henninglarsen.com/projects/urban-decarb

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• Interior Design
• Sustainability

• 3Form
• Andreu World
• Joseph P. Sgambati III
• Kohler
• Muuto
• Polygood
• Scandinavian Spaces
• Shaw Contract
• Wolf-Gordon

 “Children’s National set out to build a research ecosystem and clinical spaces to address some of the most challenging cases in pediatrics, which often come through the Rare Disease Institute and are studied at the Center for Genetic Medicine Research,” says Irene Thompson, executive director, real estate and capital planning, for Children’s National Hospital. “We also wanted the campus to be a welcome space for members of the community to be seen in our primary care clinic.”

While the buildings, ranging in architectural styles and spanning various eras, had become obsolete, “the existing architecture was really quite outstanding,” says David Manfredi, CEO and founding principal of the firm. The architects took a respectful approach to the design. The largest buildings in the collection—buildings 54 and 54x—received a significant renovation. “We basically took it down to the slabs,” Manfredi says. “Everything, all the infrastructure and mechanical systems, was removed and completely rebuilt.”

Building 54 was completed in 1953 and was essentially a windowless Brutalist bunker with 18-inch-thick walls, designed to contain highly sensitive government research and able to withstand a hydrogen bomb blast on the U.S. Capitol. Needless to say, bringing in light with new windows was a priority. Unfortunately, the preservation board limited the work to the east facade only. “We cut through the 18 inches of concrete to add windows,” Manfredi says, adding that “the proportion, even the shape, of the windows was informed by the checkerboard pattern of the board-form concrete exterior.” In all, the firm added about 6,000 square feet of new windows.

Naturally, the architects updated all the systems and created ADA-accessible interiors. The material palette, to a certain extent, celebrates the history of the building. “We brought some of the board-form concrete inside, but wherever we could, we used wood to make it warm and added pops of color,” says Manfredi. “There’s certainly whimsy in some of the graphics in the building.”

The state-of-the-art mechanical systems significantly improved the project’s sustainable bona fides. “At the time we were designing it, which was 2019, the average national EUI [energy use intensity] for a lab building was 370,000 BTUs per square foot per year,” Manfredi explains. “Building 54 was designed to achieve an EUI of 108,000 BTUs per square foot per year.” A parking garage incorporates a 1.64-acre, 1.148-megawatt solar array that feeds power to the local community.

For Thompson, “we set out to create world-class health-care and research facilities, and we are delighted with how the buildings meet that mission.” 

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• Healthcare

• HALKIN MASON PHOTOGRAPHY

He went on to study fine art at UCLA, and under instructor Jorge Pardo—the famed Cuban-American sculptor who often incorporates elements of design in his work—he was convinced to continue his education at ArtCenter College of Design, where everything came together. With a master’s degree in environmental design, he landed a job at RIOS in Los Angeles and eventually found himself at influential graphic design firm Pentagram. While helping imagine a family experience for a multinational retail client during his time at the former, he helped develop a wayfinding scheme for a Tadao Ando–designed building in Mexico in his capacity at the latter. 

“Working at Pentagram was a dream, but it required hard work,” the designer reflects. “I felt very encouraged and welcomed because I had a great rapport with some of the partners who I found to be curious, unique, and independent. They inspired me to envision a life working for myself rather than as an employee.” 

Branching out on his own and making a foray into the previously uncharted waters of commercial furniture, Adamick got his first big break with the development of the Audio chair for Bernhardt, which the company’s president Jerry Helling chose to emphasize at the brand’s Milan Design Week showcase. Other major collaborations followed, including the Constellation Table for Corral and the Toluca armchair for Martin Brattrud. 

Admix, his latest collection developed for Iowa-based office furniture manufacturer Allsteel, is a new system of radically flexible tables aimed at collaborative work. “The post-pandemic world has represented the most significant change in our work lives since the Industrial Revolution,” Adamick explains. “We thought, what if hybrid work schedules allowed businesses to hire a wider range of people such as new parents, neurodiverse individuals, physically disabled people, and those who live far away?”

The resulting suite of products flattens hierarchies, affords multiple postures, and facilitates remote participation in a sensitive way, allowing teams to be more creative and resilient. The tables were configured so that no one ends up assuming the traditional position of power or being put on the spot. Easily interchangeable components allow for adaptability and personalization, which—according to the designer—people are craving. The collection officially debuts at NeoCon 2024 and is his first comprehensive collection to hit the contract market. 

“Designing this type of commercial furniture is challenging because of the need to balance our deeply personal relationship with these items with the complexity of manufacturing,” he concludes. “There is also a symbolic dimension to furniture where we can explore and communicate value sets through forms and materials. I feel that there is a mysterious quality to great furniture. It’s not just beauty paired with functionality but something else entirely. I think it needs to feel like it has its own life or soul.” 

For him, it comes down to uncovering and clarifying problems so that they can be properly addressed: “The best outcomes are those that are beautiful because they improve life in subtle ways.” Adamick has spent the past 20 years making paradigm-shifting design decisions—like the complete lateralization of conference room tables—that respond to major changes in society and, in turn, have longer life spans. 

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• Manufacturing

• Adrian Madlener
• Allsteel
• Workplace