Autodesk Sustainable Design Curriculum
Lesson Three: Modeling Building Placement, Massing, and Layout
for Sustainability
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Sustainable Microcosm: Modeling the Ecology of the Building Site
Core Principles for Modeling Effective Sustainable Design
Placement
Optimizing Building Form
The Role of the Engineer at the Conceptual Phase of Sustainable Design
Generative Sustainable Design Sustainable Design and 3D/4D Metrics
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Sustainable Microcosm:
Modeling the Ecology of the Building Site
After modeling the regional context for the building site, you now can turn inward, within the
boundaries of the site, and model the inner workings of the site as a microcosm of a larger
regional system.
The objective is to take advantage of the features of the site that will:
• Minimize the building’s heating, ventilation, cooling, and illumination energy loads.
• Optimize the quantity of material resources needed to build and maintain the building.
• Optimize the building’s ability to collect and use fresh water.
• Optimize the building’s ability to contribute to the health and vitality of the surrounding
ecological, social, and economic communities.
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Sustainable Microcosm:
Modeling the Ecology of the Building Site
When environmental scientists are tasked with assessing a building site, their first action is usually to
take an inventory of the natural elements present or moving through the site.
They measure features of the microclimate of the site by reviewing the available historical regional
data and then supplement that information with what they can gather directly by using a weather
station: local changes in
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Solar radiation
Temperature
Humidity
Wind speed and direction
Precipitation
Barometric pressure
Images courtesy US Department of Agriculture,
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Sustainable Microcosm:
Modeling the Ecology of the Building Site
They dig a soil profile pit down to the bedrock, if they are not stopped by groundwater, to better
understand the soil’s structure, its chemical properties, and the process of soil formation or
pedogenesis.
Images courtesy US Department of Agriculture,
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Sustainable Microcosm:
Modeling the Ecology of the Building Site
An assessment of the local surface water hydrology generally follows, to assess the amount and the
rate of the flow of water:
• moving across the site’s surface;
• draining into lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, and wetlands;
• or draining away from the site through storm sewer infrastructure.
Left Image: Site planning for urban stream protection. Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Schueler, T. 1995, US EPA Office of
Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds. Washington, DC.
Right Image: “Restoration, Creation, and Recovery of Wetlands” Wetland Restoration and Creation” Mary E. Kentula, National Water
Summary on Wetland Resources United States Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 2425 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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Sustainable Microcosm:
Modeling the Ecology of the Building Site
The hydrological inventory
creates meaningful context for
an inventory of the major plant
and animal communities living
on the site, which all depend
on water.
The trees, shrubs, grasses,
perennial and annual plants, as
well as the microorganisms,
invertebrates, insects, and the
range of animals present on
the site, can all be identified,
and the stage of development
of the community can be
characterized (old growth,
second growth, and so on).
Top Image: Stand dynamics stages during succession
Left Image: Biologists use a backpack electrofishing unit to sample fish and amphibians in a headwater stream of the South Fork Trinity River,
Northern California, Western Fisheries Research Center, USGS.
Right Image: Non-indigenous Species Impacts on Listed Salmonids, Beth Sanderson, Kate Macneale, and Katie Barnas, Northwest Fisheries
Sceince Center, NOAA Fisheries.
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Sustainable Microcosm:
Modeling the Ecology of the Building Site
This analysis is usually followed by an
attempt to understand how these
plant and animal communities
participate in the biogeochemical
cycling of energy and matter on the
site.
A variety of chemical and
thermodynamic processes occur on
and off the site, and these processes
can be measured in terms of the
total biomass, concentrations of
chemical elements and compounds,
the metabolic activity of producers
and consumers, and the sources,
sinks, flow, and interaction of matter
and energy.
Top Image: H.T. Odum's System of Generic Symbols, by Sholto Maud, from Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Bottom Image: From “eMergy Evaluation,” by Howard T. Odum, Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, International
Workshop on Advances in Energy Studies: Energy Flows in Ecology and Economy, Porto Venere, Italy, May 27, 1998. (http://dieoff.org/page170.htm).
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Sustainable Microcosm:
Modeling the Ecology of the Building Site
The graphical ecological modeling system developed by T. Howard Odum can be used to
produce powerfully descriptive models of the ecological structure and function of a site.
Left Image: Ecological Benefits from Restoration: Emergy-Based Valuation, Tingting Cai, Thomas Olsen, and Dan Campbell, US EPA, Office of
Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effect Research Laboratory, Atlantic Ecology Division, Narragansett, RI; Kingston, RI.
Right Image: “Sulphur Cycling in Marine and Freshwater Wetlands,” Anne E. Giblin, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, and R. Kelman
Wieder, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment.
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Core Principles for Modeling Effective Sustainable Design
The principles of the Natural Step and Cradle to Cradle have emerged as the “best in class” for sustainable
design. While they have the appearance of philosophical creeds, they actually represent a long process of
scientific consensus building, based on decades of research. They are simple, succinct, actionable, and
powerfully transformative.
The Natural Step philosophy states that:
1.
Nature should not be subject to systematically increasing
concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth's
crust (fossil fuels, minerals, ores, other pure elements)
2.
Nature should not be subject to systematically increasing
concentrations of substances produced by society
(synthetic materials, discarded manufactured/constructed
objects, waste byproducts of chemical reactions, and
manufacturing processes, and so on).
3.
Nature should not be subject to systematically increasing
degradation by physical means; for example, humans
should refrain from destroying ecosystems and natural
communities of plants and animals.
4.
People should not be subject to conditions that
systematically undermine their capacity to meet their
needs. Along the lines of the physician’s Hippocratic oath,
people should strive to “do no harm” to other people.
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Core Principles for Modeling Effective Sustainable Design
The "Cradle to Cradle" model is based on a system of "life-cycle development" initiated by Michael Braungart
and colleagues at the German Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) in the 1990s .
It was developed in more detail and then widely popularized when Braungart joined forces with architect and
educator William McDonough, who is one of the leading proponents of sustainable design, to write the 2002
book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.
“Cradle to Cradle” Principles
Exert Intergenerational Responsibility
In the Cradle to Cradle model, all materials
used in industrial or commercial processes
such as metals, fibers, and dyes, are
placed in one of two categories:
"technical" or "biological" nutrients.
Get Free of Known “Culprits” (toxics)
Technical nutrients are strictly limited to
Create and Activate a “passive positives” list
nontoxic, nonharmful synthetic materials
that research has proven have no negative
effects on the natural environment. These
Innovate - recast the design assignment:
materials can be recycled as the same
Don’t just reinvent the recipe, rethink the menu products without losing their integrity or
quality. This approach enables these
materials to be used over and over again
Restore - give preference to:
instead of being "downcycled" into less
refined and less useful products that
 Ecological intelligence
ultimately become waste.
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Respect
Abundance, delight, celebration, and FUN
Biological nutrients are materials that,
once they are used, can be disposed of in
any natural environment, and they will
safely decompose into the soil.
Placement
The pursuit of knowledge about the influence of the environment on the siting, placement, and orientation of
cities, roads, bridges, buildings, and other structures is an ancient discipline.
Planners, architects, engineers, and builders have long understood that different building locations and
orientations combine with different environmental conditions to produce vastly different results.
During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the environmental awareness of ancient civilizations slowly
evolved into formal proto-scientific practices of building placement, known variously as Geomancy in Europe
and the Middle East, Feng Shui in China, and Vastu in India.
Left Image: An illustration of a medieval geomantic house chart.
Center Image: Feng shui Luopan compass, photo by borghal from the Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Right Image: Hindu Vastu Mahapitha Mandala
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Placement
Today, advances in science, in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, and in techniques of
information modeling are being successfully applied to the analysis of site-specific sustainable design criteria.
Image: DA-SM2-U version of the Penn State/NCAR Mesoscale Air Quality Model (MM5), by S. Dupont et. al., 2003, NOAA Air Resources Laboratory/NERL, U.S. EPA.
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Placement
Today, advances in science, in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, and in techniques of
information modeling are being successfully applied to the analysis of site-specific sustainable design criteria.
Left: Image: Wind rose plot, New York City, NY, Autodesk’s Ecotect Weather tool software.
Right Image: Lower Manhattan Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of predicted wind speed (m/sec), 2004 NOAA Atmospheric Sciences Modeling
Division/EPA Atmospheric Modeling and Analysis Division.
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Weather Data Is Critical— Know the MicroClimate
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Optimizing Building Form
The biggest opportunity for achieving the goals of sustainable design is during the conceptual
design phase.
If you have done a complete job of modeling the site within a regional context, the site will
“speak” to you as a unique place.
It will tell you what its “highest and best use” is, not just from an economic perspective, but also
from the social and ecological perspectives.
Your task as sustainable designers is to listen carefully
for solutions that do not compromise either domain,
but that lead instead to a mutually reinforcing
synergy.
The additional challenge that sustainable design
presents at the stage of layout and circulation is the
objective of using the unique characteristics of the
site to reduce the energy use and natural resource use
loads for lighting, heating, ventilation, cooling,
plumbing, and other mechanical needs.
Buildings with no potential to become carbon neutral
ultimately become a liability to owners. In fact they
may have to be torn down because they will not meet
future sustainability targets and will be too expensive
to operate.
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Optimizing Building Form
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Check all possible orientations.
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Use windows and skylights to maximize daylighting.
It is always cheaper to use skylights to light a space than to use photovoltaic
panels.
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Minimize nonbeneficial envelope
loads with appropriate technologies
Incorporate appropriate shading.
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Select a thermal mass envelope if the
weather appropriate.
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Design openings for cross and stack
ventilation.
Floor Plate Decision
Source: Google Earth Pro
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Floor Plates of the World
San Antonio
London
Cupertino,
CA
Florence
Berlin
Paris
Las
Vegas
Chicago
Austin,
TXFL
Tokyo
Sarasota,
Miami Budapest
Rome
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Massing Studies
“Architectural massing is the act of composing and manipulating three-dimensional forms into a unified,
coherent architectural configuration. During this process, the relations among massing elements are studied;
this includes the relations of the building with its surrounding context and of the building with its subparts.
Massing comprises all decisions affecting external architectural form.”
(“Strategic use of Representation in Architectural Massing,” by Omer Akin and Hoda Moustapha, Department of Architecture,
Carnegie Mellon University, 2003 Elsevier Ltd.)
Image: Omer Akin and Hoda Moustapha, 2003,
Ibid.
Today, BIM technology makes it computationally feasible to introduce the criteria of sustainable design into the
conceptual design strategy in a way that can generate ecologically, socially, and economically meaningful
regulating elements for 3D massing.
BIM analysis tools can provide designers with precise simulations of how topographic features, such as existing
grade, natural earth berms, rock outcroppings, and surrounding vegetation and man-made structures, can:
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provide shelter from wind, rain, and snow;
absorb or deflect noise; and
provide summer shade while allowing for solar gain in the winter.
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Massing Studies
Massing also has a figurative sculptural aspect.
From a formal architectural perspective, conceptual massing studies seek to discover how a
variety of sculptural volumes set within a context of complex cultural, social, political, and
economic messaging can elicit aesthetic and psychological responses.
The skillful execution of this form of communication is one of the most important services
provided by architects.
Left Image: Santiago Caltrava’s HSB Turning Torso, Malmo, Sweden, photo by Vask, from Wikimedia Commons,
Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Right Image: The Clock Tower (a.k.a. “Big Ben”), 2004, seen from Westminster Bridge, London, England
© 2009Autodesk
Massing Studies
From a sustainable design perspective, it is critical that the earliest building massing process
includes an examination of climate, prevailing winds, availability of natural light by season, and
the potential for seasonal harvesting of rainwater.
There are many examples of buildings that use massing to address the symbolic, psychological
aspect of design and the climate and function of the building, and do so while using materials
available directly from the building site.
Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, Photo by Oder Zeichner: US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Branch of Still and Motion
Pictures
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The Role of the Engineer at the Conceptual Phase of
Sustainable Design
From a formal perspective, engineers would appear to have the primary responsibility for
enabling society to achieve the goals of sustainable design.
Engineering is the academic and professional AEC discipline that is most closely aligned with the
sciences, and science appears to be the most important driver of the sustainable design
challenge.
The sciences most visibly engaged in driving sustainability are climatology, ecology, and so-called
“green” chemistry, but they are relatively new disciplines that have not been traditionally
aligned with engineering.
Aligning the day-to-day practice of engineering with these new sciences presents a serious
challenge.
At the conceptual phase, engineers need to be willing and able to participate more as colearners, advisors, educators, and collaborators, and less like forensic authorities or members of
an assembly line hired to sequentially fulfill discreet tasks.
If this can be done, important design innovations and breakthroughs will almost certainly
emerge.
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The Role of the Engineer at the Conceptual Phase of
Sustainable Design
The goal at this stage is to determine how local climate and weather, subsurface materials,
topographic features, bodies of waters, surrounding vegetation and wildlife, and man-made
structures can contribute the sustainability of the built environment by:
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Preventing or sequestering emissions of greenhouse gases.
Functioning as sources and sinks of useful energy.
Capturing and improving the quality of water.
Preventing soil erosion and improving the health of the soil to enable improved
agricultural output.
• Providing human shelter from extreme weather conditions such as solar radiation, heat,
cold, wind, and precipitation.
• Mitigating potential health hazards such as air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution,
hindrances to access to natural daylight, and so on.
• Improving the quality of life for human society by promoting social justice, economic
prosperity, and the cultural/aesthetic life of communities.
The most successful engineers who are practicing sustainable design are those who can visually
model complex phenomena and processes and effectively communicate those models to their
clients, to the other members of their design team, and to the public.
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The Role of the Engineer at the Conceptual Phase of
Sustainable Design
Thermal Mass and the Heat Capacity of Building Materials
Focus briefly on the one aspect of sustainable
design that tends to get a lot of attention:
the thermal mass effect.
This is an aspect of the siting, layout, and massing
of a building that requires some technical
expertise to model accurately
It presents a prime opportunity for architects and
engineers to collaborate during the conceptual
design phase.
The thermal mass effect is a phenomenon related
to a building material’s density, as measured in
terms of heat capacity and heat conductivity.
Achieving the goal of creating net-zero energy buildings requires understanding the need for solar
thermal energy on the site and optimizing its capture and use. This requires knowing where and
when and how solar radiation, wind, and precipitation impact a building, and the thermal behavior
of a variety of building materials.
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Energy Use
Opt 1
Opt 2
Schematic Energy:
Whole Building Energy Analysis
 Solar Analysis
 Daylight Analysis
 Thermal Analysis
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Baseline
50% Reduction
Generative Sustainable Design and 3D/4D Metrics
In order to determine what would make a place suitable as a building site with respect to
sustainable development goals, designers must translate their sustainable design criteria into
metrics: ratios of various aspects of building performance.
When this has been achieved, it opens the door for a generative approach to sustainable design.
Generative design is possible through algorithms, and rules, acting upon the morphology of
primitive shapes organized in a hierarchy of complexity, topology, and so on.
Generative design can be modeled so that higher order goals of energy efficiency, carbon neutrality,
embodied energy, cost, LEED rating, and so on, can alter the morphology of the building and its
fenestration.
One of the most important features of BIM tools is that they automatically calculate and represent
accurate three-dimensional design information. This means that designers can accurately predict
surface areas and volumes during the massing phase, and they can visualize a proposed design from
a virtually infinite number of perspectives.
This ability to visualize in 3D with respect to time (4D) enables the designer to observe instances
where proposed building features (walls, ceilings, floors, enclosed spaces, entrances, exits,
windows, and doors) and design functions support or interfere with each other during construction
and operations.
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Summary
Once designers have considered the ecological, social, and economic criteria that characterize
the region in which they will be building, they can use BIM tools and information modeling
techniques to explore and apply the criteria of sustainability and sustainable design to siting,
massing, and laying out the building on a specific building site.
© 2009Autodesk
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