I have fourteen years’ experience in sustainable design for all built environment scales, from innovative building systems to national infrastructure planning. I have developed low and net zero energy designs for buildings across the US, Europe and the Middle East, including the City of Santa Monica’s flagship City Services building, currently under construction. I have recently been working with several University of California campuses to develop carbon reduction strategies, sustainable master plans and low energy building designs. I have supervised Engineering Doctorates, and created collaborative MSc research programs with the University of Southern California and Brunel University (UK). My innovative cooling system, known as NewMass, won the Energy Efficient Product of the Year award, at the 2018 Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers, Building Performance Awards. I have led several large publicly-funded research projects, including the pan-European Building AdVent project, which created case studies of successfully naturally ventilated buildings across Europe’s three major climate zones. I recently collaborated with the University of California, Los Angeles to develop Los Angeles County’s new Sustainability Plan. I have lectured and spoken at the University of Southern California, Woodbury University, the University of Arizona, and London Metropolitan University. I also sit on the board of the Cooperative Resources and Services Project, which manages development of the Los Angeles Eco-village.
BuroHappold, Los Angeles, CA, US, California Energy and Campus Planning Lead
Master planning and strategic sustainability consultancy for buildings, campuses and cities. Services include energy, water and waste strategy, low carbon planning, district energy system design, net zero energy design, building energy modelling, renewables design, and HVAC optimization. Management responsibilities include leading the West Coast Building Physics team, group strategy, establishing performance standards and giving training.
BuroHappold, London, GB, Engineer
Building thermal modelling, energy strategies at building and masterplan level, sustainable energy systems, product development, phase change materials system design, compliance and accreditation, industrial research, EngD supervision.
Brunel University London, London, GB, Research Engineer
Industrial research program, sponsored by BuroHappold, which incorporates 14 taught modules, equivalent to MSc in Sustainable Development. My research focused on the application of phase change materials to cool buildings. This resulted in a new low energy cooling system, known as NewMass, which won the CIBSE 2018 Energy Saving Product Award; patent application in process.
Brunel University, London, GB, PhD, Environmental Technology
Industrial research program, sponsored by BuroHappold, which incorporates 14 taught modules, equivalent to MSc in Sustainable Development. My research focused on the application of phase change materials to cool buildings. This resulted in a new low energy cooling system, known as NewMass, which won the CIBSE 2018 Energy Saving Product Award; patent application in process.
Brunel University, London, GB, Masters, Sustainable Energy: Technology and Management
The NewMass cooling system created by BuroHappold Engineering’s Gideon Susman is a low energy cooling system comprising an array of finned tubes that sit below the ceiling of an occupied space. The tubes are filled with a phase change material (PCM) that passively absorbs excess heat from the space by changing from a solid to a liquid.
Judges comments: “A lot of thought has gone into NewMass. We were really impressed with the supporting documentation and how open they were with the testing they have done.“
