Sefaira Announces Design Guidance for Architecture 2030’s 2030 Palette at Greenbuild 2016

Sefaira, a Trimble Company, and Architecture 2030 announced Design Guidance at Greenbuild 2016, taking place in Los Angeles October 5-7, a new functionality in Sefaira Architecture. Design Guidance uses real-time analysis results in Sefaira Architecture to deliver customized guidance on how to improve a building’s performance, and points the designer to relevant passive design strategies collated in Architecture 2030’s 2030 Palette.

Sefaira’s Design Guidance for 2030 Palette

In the following interview, both Edward Mazria, founder and CEO Architecture 2030 and Kerger Truesdell, product manager, Sefaira respond to questions about the announcement and future of Design Guidance and 2030 Palette.

According to Architecture 2030 materials, the 2030 Palette is Architecture 2030’s online resource for the design of low carbon and adaptable built environments worldwide. This free tool informs the design and planning process at the point of inspiration, presenting the best information and practices through powerful visuals and straightforward language. “Design tools that enable architects and engineers to make informed decisions on energy use during the critical early phases of design are key to meeting the 2030 Challenge targets. Sefaira Architecture already integrates the 2030 Challenge benchmarks directly into its realtime energy analysis,” said Ed Mazria, Founder and CEO of Architecture 2030, “but information to support the analysis tools is just as important.”

Sefaira Design Guidance Plug in only

AECCafe Voice: Usually Architecture 2030 doesn’t champion any particular software products, so I’m wondering what Sefaira’s relationship with the organization is or perhaps this view has changed?

Architecture 2030 has for many years called for tools that will help designers see the energy use of their buildings from the earliest stage of design, and we’re delighted that there are several software vendors and organizations, including Sefaira, Autodesk, AIA, EPA, and Climate Consultant, that include Architecture 2030 tools and benchmarks in their products and tools. We do not offer opinions on which particular tool designers should use, and do not receive any financial consideration for any of Architecture 2030’s work being included in any product. The 2030 Palette for example, will remain free and open source, and we look forward to seeing additional software producers use it in ways that will further assist architects and designers to create high-performance buildings. – Edward Mazria, Founder and CEO, Architecture 2030

Design Guidance Plug in

AECCafe Voice: What types of relevant passive design strategies would Design Guidance point to and how would that happen in the 2030 Palette?

Design Guidance responds to Sefaira’s assessment of the following Energy Segments: Heating, Cooling, Equipment, and Lighting. The design strategies surfaced to the user focus on lowering energy use associated with those segments. One example would be “Solar Shading”. This passive design strategy would be relevant for a building experiencing high energy use related to cooling. Adding shading could offset the solar heat gain that may be contributing to the building’s cooling load.  – Kerger Truesdell, Product Manager, Sefaira

 AECCafe Voice: Can you give an example of a workflow utilizing Design Guidance analysis results in 2030 Palette?

I am an architectural designer. I use the Sefaira plugin to assess the energy use of my building. Sefaira shows me that my building design is cooling dominated: my building experiences significant heat gain, which must be offset by mechanical cooling. Design Guidance lists design strategies from the 2030 Palette that I could incorporate into my design to lower the cooling load and/or lower the energy required to mechanically cool the building. – Kerger Truesdell, Product Manager, Sefaira

AECCafe Voice: Is Design Guidance created expressly for the 2030 Palette?

Design Guidance was developed to further equip designers to achieve high performing designs. This is important for the current building design project, and for the next building design project: the current project benefits from high-performance design strategies; the next project benefits from teams’ growing ability and familiarity with high-performance design. – Kerger Truesdell, Product Manager, Sefaira

AECCafe Voice: What is the price point of Design Guidance, and will it be available to others who are not using other Sefaira tools?

Design Guidance is a feature available to all those with an active subscription to Sefaira Architecture. Subscriptions to Sefaira Architecture begin at $899. Please see our website for more details: http://sefaira.com/product-pricing/. – Kerger Truesdell, Product Manager, Sefaira

Architecture 2030 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization with the mission of rapidly transforming the built environment from the major contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to a central part of the solution to the climate and energy crises. Architecture 2030 pursues two primary objectives: • the dramatic reduction in global fossil fuel consumption and GHG emissions of the built environment by changing the way cities, communities, infrastructure, and buildings, are planned, designed, and constructed and; • the regional development of an adaptive, resilient built environment that can manage the impacts of climate change, preserve natural resources, and access low-cost, renewable energy resources.

Tags: 2030 Palette, 3D, AEC, architects, architecture, Architecture 2030, BIM, building information modeling, CAD, Cloud, collaboration, construction, design, engineering, Sefaira, Trimble, visualization

Categories: AEC, AECCafe, AIA 2016, apps, architecture, Architecture 2030, BIM, building information modeling, buildingSMART, collaboration, engineering, IES, IFC, infrastructure, Sefaira, site planning, Trimble

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