Architect Nicklas encourages more sustainability

If Chapel Hill changes its approach to architecture, the sunlight that drives climate change could also be used to combat it.

More than two dozen town residents gathered at the Chapel Hill Public Library Tuesday to discuss sustainable housing at a presentation from architect Mike Nicklas.

Nicklas is the president of the architectural firm Innovative Design, which specializes in designing sustainable buildings.

“The path we are on isn’t sustainable,” he said. “You have to be kind of stupid not to see this problem.”

A large portion of U.S. energy use comes from infrastructure in buildings, such as heating equipment and water transportation, Nicklas said. He said much of this energy use is inefficient, and operating costs can be reduced by altering building designs.

“Everyone says that green costs so much, but that is just not what we have found,” he said.

Some of the chief strategies to sustainable design include daylighting, equipping a building with solar energy panels and harvesting rainwater, Nicklas said.

Daylighting is an alternative architecture design that uses natural daylight to light a building.

“It not only saves in lighting, but it saves in the amount of cooling equipment a building needs, because the lighting load is less,” he said.

Nicklas said solar power is the only way to make a building entirely self-sufficient.

“For years, people complained that there isn’t enough sun in North Carolina,” he said. “In Germany, their sunniest city is not as sunny as Buffalo, New York, but they have 10 times the solar energy that we do.”

Sustainable designs can be cheaper than traditional infrastructure and lead to enormous reductions in energy usage, Nicklas said.

George Maha, attendee of the presentation and employee of the building design firm R.T. Lincoln, agreed that sustainable designs can result in savings.

“For a homeowner, buildings that aren’t sustainable lead to higher energy bills, a higher cost of living and higher maintenance,” he said.

“That energy consumptiveness is adding to the environmental cost.”

Justin Cooper, a Durham resident studying electrical engineering and architecture at Durham Technical Community College, said he was surprised by the amount of energy used by buildings.

“I see a lack of caring for sustainability, especially in building,” Cooper said.

While North Carolina is progressive in terms of building standards, more must be done to meet the needs of the future, Maha said.

“Within North Carolina, Chapel Hill has high standards,” he said. “We are nowhere near where they need to be — these goals are not high enough.”

city@dailytarheel.com