Designing a ‘green’ building: expanding ambitions through social learning

Abstract

The process of creating a specific building – Miljøbygget in Trondheim, Norway – is analyzed in order to understand how the project team's ambitions expanded to embrace ‘green’ issues and create new targets. The decisions and roles of key actors are investigated regarding these goals and criteria. The analysis draws on two concepts. First, translation theory is used to highlight the potential role of new knowledge or technology that originates outside of the project. Second, the concept of social learning is employed to understand the process of expanding ambitions, developing goals and criteria within the project, and how this is related to the collective exploration, discovery and analysis of new practices. The wider implications are considered with respect to innovation in the construction industry. The project's initial moderate energy efficiency ambition was transformed, first into stricter energy efficiency goals, then into broader environmental aims. The resulting innovation is an ambition-enhancing, experience-based and enthusiasm-driven process of social learning in the project team, marked by interpersonal trust, including trust regarding competence and contractual relations. Translation efforts were also found to be important for bringing new knowledge into the project. The conclusion discusses some policy implications.

Keywords::

• ambition
• construction industry
• design process
• innovation
• social learning
• stakeholder motivation
• sustainability
• translation

Acknowledgements

The research was funded through the Research Council of Norway (Grant numbers 183575 and 209697). The authors are grateful for the very useful comments made by the three anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1 Since the paper is not an evaluation of the outcome of the construction efforts, it uses the actors’ own labelling. They shifted between ‘green’, ‘sustainable’, ‘environmental’ and ‘environmental friendliness’. However, these concepts may be given different meanings (e.g. Cole, 1999, 2012). To avoid confusion, the label ‘green’ is used to designate the relevant activities and their outcome.

2 Retrieved from http://www.tu.no/bygg/2011/10/17/nytt-miljomerke-lanseres-i-norge/. Accessed January 18, 2014.

3 This paper is not concerned with the technical specifications as such. In that respect the building is probably too old to be interesting.

4 Retrieved from http://www.arkitektur.no/miljobygget/. Accessed May 12, 2013.

5 Retrieved from http://www.arkitektur.no/miljobygget/. Accessed December 5, 2013.

6 The programme required, in addition to energy efficiency achievements, that the projects should be suitable for profiling and demonstration as well as inspiring repetition and possibly providing ripple effects. Retrieved from http://naring.enova.no/forbildeprogram/. Accessed September 19, 2011.

7 See endnote 5.

8 Retrieved September 19, 2011, from http://www.rif.no/nettbutikk.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&category_id=10&product_id=40/. Accessed September 19, 2011.