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This afternoon saw our CTO Peter Krebs presenting at the Urban Green Expo in New York (organised by the US Green Building Council's New York chapter – the Urban Green Council). Peter presented as part of a symposium on the topic of “Innovative Software: Tools that Support Integrated Design”, and he delivered a spirited case study alongside Cramer Silkworth from Transsolar, Shillpa Singh from YRG Sustainability Consultants and Erin Rae Hoffer from Autodesk.
Key takeaways from the panellists was that different software allows designers to answer different questions, and that not every tools is equally helpful in answering every question.
Peter explained how Sefaira Concept in particular has helped architects on the early stage concept design, in terms of identifying the right sustainability strategies and finding the optimised solutions for photo-voltaics, ground source heat pumps and envelope design. His presentation started an excellent and informative debate on how best to source and integrate the vast volumes of data required for true data-driven decision making during concept design, and it looked like the audience was having a good time learning about the new approaches offered by Sefaira's technology.
Earlier in the day, the conference audience had an opportunity to enjoy William McDonough - of Cradle-to-Cradle fame. In a passionate and at times emotional speech, Bill took us through his life story and how it has helped him define his vision for sustainable design - namely that we design buildings and products that take into account "all children, of all species, for all time". In an extraordinary way McDonough underscored how important commerce and free enterprise is in achieving sustainability on Earth. Those who missed it have a chance to see one of his earlier speeches here - well worth 20 minutes.
