About the Lab

Who We Are
The Integrated Design lab (IDL) is a self-supporting University of Washington service to the building industry. The IDL includes interdisciplinary UW research, faculty, staff, and students that support the development of high-performance commercial and institutional building design including lighting, daylighting and energy infrastructure. The IDL has established design and construction market relationships in the Pacific Northwest through the provision of technical assistance, design guidance, and building energy efficiency research.

What We Are About
The IDL is the final link in the life-long learning chain of state-of-the-art professional education resources offered by the College of Built Environments to our regional professional constituencies, alumni and traditional students. The IDL is about increasing building value at no extra project cost to the owner. The goal of IDL research, design and education support is to produce buildings that synthesize a project’s context of climate, its patterns of use, the resulting building loads and systems to produce a building that is healthier, more comfortable, productive and 50% more energy efficient than today’s common best design practice. The University of Washington, through the IDL, is here to assist design teams in meeting those goals. Functionally, the IDL’s goals are to assist in decisions that support 50% reductions in a building's loads and 50% increases in its system efficiencies, utilizing state-of-the art simulation and verification techniques.

Funding Partners

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s BetterBricks Initiative, Northwest Utilities, The US Department of Energy, The National Science Foundation, and New Buildings Institute.

Market Transformation

The Integrated Design Lab's project-based efforts include:

• Design assistance over the last 10 years for 2 Million square feet per year in new construction.
• Tracking the energy performance of commercial and institutional building energy. Documenting and educating the building industry about integrated team processes and the performance of individual strategies.
• Communicating key energy efficiency design concepts to market actors and stakeholders via educational outreach, academic course work, and interactive web tools.