Zonda - Resource Library

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.

Design and construction industries are vulnerable to natural disasters and manmade hazards that can result in everything from reducing the lifespan of infrastructure to loss of life and property. Professionals in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) can mitigate these vulnerabilities by having a fuller understanding of resilience as well as the building materials and construction and operational techniques that lead to stronger, more durable buildings.

This course will examine resilience in the built environment and provide several strategies to achieve resilience at the building scale for stakeholders. It will then assess continuous insulation, particularly mineral wool, as it relates to resilient design before reviewing ASTM resilience testing standards. Finally, this course will help learners evaluate resilience in current code and beyond as well as how to enhance structural systems through the use of mineral wool insulation.

Fire. It’s been integral to human evolution and civilization as a tool for heating, lighting, cooking, and socialization for millennia. Today, with the advent of central heating, electric lighting, and highly sophisticated cooking appliances, fire tends to be used primarily for ambience but continues to provide an important role in gathering and socializing.

This course will explore how fire has evolved from a utilitarian element to a technological tool that can be used in both vernacular and high style architecture as a design element indoors, outdoors, and as functional art.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) sets the minimum requirements for newly designed and constructed or renovated state and local government facilities, public accommodations, and commercial facilities to be readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. When designing restrooms, some of each type of accessible plumbing fixture and restroom accessories and their installation location must meet accessibility requirements contained in the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design. Many projects must also follow the provisions of the 2017 Edition of the ICC A117.1 Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities Standard.

As states adopt the 2021 International Building Code (IBC) into their states’ building code, the ICC A117.1-2017 Accessible Standards will become effective for existing and new buildings. Forty-six states follow the ICC A117.1-2017 Standards (all but California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Texas; who harmonize with the ADA Standards). Additionally, states such as California have accessible requirements that vary from the ADA standards and are more stringent providing greater access.

In this course, we will cover the 2010 ADA and the ICC A117.1-2017 accessibility standards. We will also point out where and how the states including California, Florida and Minnesota building codes differ from the ADA and the ICC A117.1-2017 standards. It is important that you always check the accessibility standards that apply to your project’s location.

Extruded aluminum trim has long been used for exterior applications with panel cladding systems, but there are new opportunities to use the material for interior applications. This course will describe the performance and aesthetic benefits of extruded aluminum trim when used for interior trim. It will cover how extruded aluminum trim is manufactured and characteristics that improve fire resistance, durability, and sustainability. The course will also discuss finish and profile options, installation considerations, and emerging technologies and trends for the product.

This course will explore mass timber construction, including the different types of mass timber products that are manufactured from Douglas fir, spruce-pine-fir, and Southern pine species; their performance and environmental benefits; and applications for this type of construction.

The course will also examine the importance of Western red cedar as a sustainable building product that introduces biophilic design into a space, and how it can be used to complement mass timber construction in both interior and exterior applications.

Over the past three decades society has had the chance to rethink discrimination, with growing social awareness of gender identity, differently abled individuals, and sensory sensitivity. This has led to a movement to make all spaces barrier-free, accessible, and inclusively designed so that they are safe, comfortable, and easy for all occupants to use.

This course will examine the history of inclusive and universal design, it’s relevance today, and how to design residential homes that are accessible for all. The course will also explore the 2021 Southern Living Showcase Home, which was the first of its kind designed to be fully inclusive and accessible.

Ensuring facilities have a backup power source for resilience and redundancy is gaining traction as a goal by organizations everywhere.

In this Studio Session with ARCHITECT's Editor-in-Chief watch to learn how the energy and engineering team behind an Army National Guard project specified micro-combined heat and power (micro-CHP) systems to cut energy costs and carbon emissions while improving resilience.

Integrating interior and exterior spaces has been shown to provide occupants with myriad benefits in a variety of settings. Establishing a connection with the outdoors can improve health and wellbeing for occupants at home or in the office, as well as encouraging healing and reducing stress. In retail settings, connections with nature have been shown to increase consumer spending, and in any environment, views and sounds of nature have proven to reduce stress and enhance concentration. Folding, multi slide, and swing door systems lend themselves to occupant wellbeing by integrating interior and exterior spaces and seamlessly providing controllable access to nature.

The design of the Chowa Home is focused on balance and harmony, derived from the Japanese meaning of the word. This video shows you how the collaborative effort between Japanese and US Builders created a luxury concept home that provides solutions for creative building through flexible design and better building processes.