Few components of practice affect AIA California members on a day-to-day basis as much as building codes. We asked Michael Malinowski, FAIA, AIA California’s Code Consultant for an at-a-glance briefing of current organizational actions to improve codes.

From advocating for new options in CALGreen to coordinating with USGBC, here are eight activities.

1. We are advancing four specific code changes that will bring a new set of tools and far more expansive use options for the California Historic Code.  This will bring this unique code – which some seasoned architects consider akin to a magic wand – more into the mainstream.  
   
   
2. Bringing new options and clarity to CALGreen: Making Embodied Carbon compliance even easier by introducing carbon budgets; better aligning the prescriptive approach with the performance and building reuse approaches; adding support for the circular economy in the voluntary tiers; and pruning some obsolete provisions. 
   
   
3. Launching a program of Housing Delivery workshops that will focus on specific housing-related topics to increase best practice sharing among members, via the AIA California Housing Committee. The initial program will include a detailed analysis of both the successes and challenges involved in a unique housing type: Permanent Supportive Housing.  Future offerings will be diverse, ranging from ‘tiny homes on wheels’ to ‘practical prefabrication in high-density housing design’ and ‘paths toward missing middle housing typologies’.
   
   
4. In very early stages of working with the Energy Commission on the potential of a pilot program that will take a fresh look at how the compliance process might become far more efficient and effective for all stakeholders. There are some very interesting options that could take the current hundreds of forms that our thousands of pages of energy standards reference to a different paradigm.
   
   
5. Continuing our support for Accessory Dwelling Unit design – building on the advanced and powerful Electrical Service solution tool that we commissioned and developed and made available for FREE to our members; and supporting our robust ADU Technical Network.  If you are interested or working on ADU’s and not in our free ‘technical network’, you are missing out on support and insight from across the state.
   
   
6. Tracking the development of AI and the intersection of that with building departments and architectural intellectual property.  This is a fast-emerging area with no clear path at present for influence or collaboration.

7. Coordinating and communicating with CARB as it moves forward with plans for embodied carbon reporting across a wide range of building types and scales, to minimize potential unintended consequences on housing delivery and small infill development.
   
   
8. Coordinating with USGBC on a number of key initiatives, such as the emerging world of Building Performance Standards (BPS), a framework which is likely to become a major practice area for design professionals in the relatively near future.