Conference attendees listening to keynote speaker, Dr. John Straube
 

3rd Residential Building Design & Construction Conference

The 3rd Residential Building Design and Construction Conference (RBDCC), held concurrently with the 24th Annual Housing and Land Development Conference on March 2-3, 2016 in State College, PA, was a great success and attracted attendees from six different countries. This conference provides a forum for researchers and design professionals to discuss the state of the art in residential building and included lab tours, two receptions, and a graduate student poster presentation.

Sessions at the conference covered a broad range of topics including:

  • building envelope sustainability and retrofit
  • cross-laminated timber
  • energy audits
  • energy efficiency and high performance buildings
  • fire safety
  • hygrothermal modeling
  • indoor air quality and natural ventilation
  • modular construction
  • passive house design
  • phase-change materials
  • post-disaster housing
  • resilient design and retrofit
  • senior living
  • wind loading effects on roofs

Two Keynote Speakers were invited for the conference: Tedd Benson, President of Bensonwood, and Dr. John Straube, Principal at RDH Building Science and RDH Building Science Labs and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Tedd Benson focused on the next generation of homebuilding in his presentation, “The 21st Century Craft of Sustainable Homebuilding: Culture, Technology, and Methods Toward a Better Way to Design & Build.” Dr. John Straube focused on the importance of building science in his presentation, “Building Science: The Foundation of Future Residential Building Design and Practice.”

For the full conference proceedings and videos of the keynote presentations, please click on the Publications tab.

 
 

About

The Pennsylvania Housing Research Center serves the home building industry and the residents of Pennsylvania by improving the quality and affordability of housing.

We conduct applied research, foster the development and commercialization of innovative technologies, and transfer appropriate technologies to the housing community.

Pennsylvania Housing Research Center

219 Sackett Building

The Pennsylvania State University

University Park, PA 16802

Phone: 814-865-2341

Fax: 814-863-7304

E-mail: phrc@psu.edu