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The Building Products Innovation Council (BPIC) has thus teamed with CSIRO and Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society to develop such a library. These projects have languished so there remains a strong need for a local Australian database ranking building products on their whole of life environmental impact.

A decade or so ago this was rectified via locally developed pioneering products such BHP’s LISA (LCA in Sustainable Architecture) and the NSW’s Department of Public Works’ LCAid. The problem with much life cycle assessment (LCA) software is that it relies on data from Europe or North America, which isn’t always applicable to an Australian context.

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Open Studio enables buildings created in SketchUp to be assessed for their thermal load by simulating the sun's movement during the day for a whole year to determine if windows have been effectively shaded. Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning loads can be modelled, as well as lighting and water systems.

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Open Studio is a free plug-in for SketchUp.

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The US’ National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have added to this gratis software bonanza by also offering its Open Studio tool, which combines EnergyPlus, a software program for analysing energy use in buildings. Oddly, coming from Google, SketchUp is not a web-based application but runs on either later versions of Windows or Macintosh OS X. For those requiring more, there’s SketchUp Pro, which costs about US$500 (still modest compared to other CAD programs).

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The surprisingly powerful SketchUp is available as a free download from Google. Ecotect has a web-based companion, Green Building Studio, which adds carbon neutrality analysis to the package. Ecotect also allows CAD designs to be imported via a variety of formats, such as DXF, OBJ or 3DS, providing quick virtual assessment of daylighting, shadowing, solar gain and thermal comfort at any time of day. This affords architects an ability to design more energy efficient buildings from the get-go, reducing not only project development cost, but both building operational costs. Ecotect provides analysis very early on in the design process and does not require a completed building design to furnish performance data. A building analysis tool, Ecotect allows architects and engineers to measure a building’s performance criteria like solar, thermal, shading, lighting and airflow.

In 2008, AutoDesk, the company behind the first CAD (computer aided design) program to run on personal computers, AutoCAD, acquired EcoTect software. Andrew Marsh whilst at the University of Western Australia. Warren McLaren does a brief roundup of some of the green digital software tools available for designers, architects and engineers to conjure up a brighter world.Įcotect was originally designed by Dr. Many a great design may have been scribbled on the back of an envelope, but these days smart thinking more often takes shape on a computer.

Exhibitions, Associations & Information.

Ceilings, Internal Wall Materials & Partitioning.

I was the original author of Ecotect (which became Autodesk Ecotect Analysis), am creative director of the Natural Frequency Journal and regularly contribute articles and research papers at international conferences and in other journals. I co-founded a software development company which was subsequently acquired by Autodesk, where I worked for a number of years on simulation and analysis in BIM. I have since worked in Sydney and the United Kingdom as an environmental analyst, performative design consultant, university lecturer, research fellow, software engineer and company director. I studied architecture at the University of Western Australia in Perth and received my doctorate there. I have worked on many performance-driven building projects around the world and authored a wide range of technical and analytical design software that is now used internationally in both education and practice. I am an architect, design consultant, academic and software developer.

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