Zonda - Resource Library

Presented by Fernando Pages, this presentation serves as a resource and primer for product specification and complements the book Architectural Design for Traditional Neighborhoods published by the Vinyl Siding Institute (VSI) in 2019.

This course aims to provide design professionals full control of the design’s aesthetic outcome with polymeric sidings, trim, and ornamentation, respecting the architectural style, target market, and project budget. These specifications will refer to traditional architectural features in the language of art.

This effort aims to put the power of good design details and recommended installation practices within the architectural designer’s easy reach.

This On Demand CEU is a recorded presentation from a previously live webinar event. Being a brilliant architect rarely translates into having a successful business. With all the years of education and training to make us experts in our profession, the skills needed to have a successful business were conveniently overlooked. This webinar will fill the void and provide you with the business management highlights that every firm needs to apply to achieve their full potential.

In this session, we will learn the fundamentals of all successful AE firms and provide the basis for making well-grounded business decisions. We will learn how firms can transition from being professionals providing services, to highly tuned businesses that can identify the needs of the marketplace and create services and products that are appropriately priced and yield consistent and greater profits.

Rather than seeking out new projects that merely build upon your current skills, you will start from a business-thinking mindset, where processes that are critical to building a thriving firm are examined and constituted in your firm. We will explore the importance of data within an architect firm and demonstrate how careful collection and interpretation can lead your firm into more exciting and profitable territory.

Architects are called on to design to increasingly stringent standards for performance, safety, sustainability, and now occupant wellness. The stakes are even higher in a post-pandemic environment that demands even higher performance from building materials. This course will discuss 100% waterproof, sanitary solid polymer ceiling and wall panels products that can withstand the demands of high-traffic environments such as hospitals and schools. We will cover the challenges these applications face and performance measures such as impact, abrasion, and stain resistance that ceiling and wall panels must meet.

Learn how vacuum insulating class (VIG) units are different from typical architectural insulating glass units (IGUs) and how VIG technologies can meet a vast range of needs, ranging from energy savings and occupant comfort to acoustic improvement.

This course also examines the energy performance of VIG units compared to traditional product options and reviews specific code requirements that VIG products can meet and exceed.

This course will explore three building sectors—hospitality, multifamily housing, and senior housing—and the flooring challenges these projects face, including heavy foot traffic, maintenance, safety, and aesthetics.

Hard surface flooring such as tile, luxury vinyl tile, laminate, and engineered wood can be specified throughout these projects to meet the demands of public spaces such as lobbies and restaurants and private areas such as bedrooms and baths. The course will also examine a case study from each sector.

Most current trends in tile, vinyl and wood flooring are the result of emerging technical advances, offering designers and architects enormous flexibility to create unique looks in non-traditional applications. Tiles that simulate real wood, vinyl flooring with a natural stone appearance, and wood flooring that can be used in wet areas are just some of the latest advancements.

In this course contractors, designers and architects will learn how to apply current trends in tile, vinyl and wood flooring to gain a competitive advantage.

This On Demand CEU is a recorded presentation from a previously live webinar event. For many architecture and engineering firms, the business is not just a career, but a lifestyle. However, when the time comes to retire or slow down, the most important investment you can rely on might not be your 401(k), IRA, or real estate portfolio—but your firm. Succession planning is not just about ensuring your practice can continue without you; it’s about building a valuable asset that can provide significant financial security and wealth, potentially making your firm your most significant retirement asset.

Presented by Steve Burns, FAIA, Founder of The Well-Designed Firm, this session is an essential webinar on the best practices for succession planning and leadership transition designed specifically for firm owners who may not have considered the long-term financial benefits of planning ahead. Steve will show you how to strategically grow your firm’s value, preparing it for a successful transition that can offer you the financial freedom to step back when you are ready.

This On Demand CEU is a recorded presentation from a previously live webinar event. Explore the fundamentals of variable refrigerant flow (VRF) technology and discover how it enhances energy efficiency, design flexibility, and sustainability in various architectural projects.

Learn practical applications, design considerations, and installation best practices for VRF systems.

This presentation is the first module in our CMU embodied carbon series and focuses on how concrete masonry units (CMU) differ from traditional wet-cast concrete in terms of carbon impact. Concrete Masonry Units (CMU) are made with dry-cast concrete (zero-slump) which uses less water and cement than wet-cast concrete, because of differences in manufacturing. The unique structure of dry-cast concrete enables increased rates of natural carbon dioxide sequestration at a much faster rate than most other types of concrete. We will set the stage for the concrete and carbon sequestration discussion by looking at the larger geologic carbon cycle and greenhouse gas emissions; and how it all relates to climate change. We will then look at the concrete carbon cycle and recent CMHA sequestration research and testing which demonstrates the accelerated sequestration rates substantially reducing the overall embodied carbon of dry-cast CMU construction.

This On Demand CEU is a recorded presentation from a previously live webinar event. Concrete is a rather ubiquitous, tested, proven, and versatile building material. It has been used for literally thousands of years to create long-lasting man-made structures of all types, including buildings. Architects in the past few centuries have found it to be an appealing choice to express dynamic and vibrant designs in ways that other materials could not. The ability to structurally reinforce concrete and form it into custom, free-flowing shapes can give it an organize quality that is different from most other materials. This can produce more design freedom and the ability to incorporate unique and custom features into a building as part of the basic construction process.

It is not surprising then that new technologies, techniques, and design approaches have been developed that allow architects to think and design with concrete in ways that are even more creative, structurally efficient, sustainable, and cost efficient. It is also common to couple the technical knowledge of concrete with the ability to design in three dimensions using building information modeling or similar design software to create award-winning and stunning facilities. Some architects even attest that their careers have not only been made possible but flourished through this combination.