Energy Monitoring 101: Open Standards
In almost every architectural project we undertake at LMN, we urge the client to seriously consider sub-metering and energy monitoring. After years of recommending this, we decided to “eat our own dog food.” We wanted to understand the underlying costs, infrastructure changes, and digital tools necessary for proper energy monitoring so – for our office – we put together our own customized solution based upon open standards hardware and software. Here’s a detailed account of how it’s going…
DIVA is Awesome and Everyone Should Use It
We’ve been playing around with the DIVA plugin for Rhino and Grasshopper for the past month. DIVA stands for Design Iterate Validate Adapt which is similar to the approach that we take with parametric modeling.
By looking at a large number of iterations it often is possible to tease out patterns of performance which can help to find a “satisficing” solution and help designers to develop a better intuition about how to approach a problem.
PDX Video: ScriptJigs
I recently gave a talk at Portland State University’s Fridays@4 lecture series. I focused on the relationship between parametrics and performance analysis and gave demos of using Grasshopper, GECO, and Ecotect. The video in this post – recorded during the talk – is an overview of the process and how we use these tools in practice…
Virtualwind 3D Wind Flow: Quick Review
I’ve spent a bit of time putting Virtualwind through the paces. Looks like a winning piece of software. First thing to mention is: Virtualwind is intended for simple CFD studies, pedestrian-level wind for example, not complicated mechanical system studies. Second thing to mention is: it has a SketchUp plug-in…so keep this in mind as well.