Tools for Sustainable Design
Each year, the U.S. building sector creates more than 50 percent of the country’s CO2 emissions. To address this issue effectively, designers need to assess the sustainability of their ideas from the earliest planning phases, when most of a building’s environmental impact is decided.
Rocky Mountain Institute is pleased to introduce two tools that can help architects quickly evaluate the sustainability of their designs.
Chhaya 2.0© is an Excel-based design tool that helps designers optimize glazing size and orientation, shading and natural ventilation to extend the period that the building can run passively. Using TMY2 weather data and a series of matrices, Chhaya’s interactive features allow users to see instantaneously the effects of changing window sizes, shades, and ventilation rates.
These features can give architects the information they need to assess and optimize a building’s heat gain and glare control, two factors that ultimately affect the need for cooling and electric lighting.
The shading information from Chhaya can be added to a Google SketchUp model and imported into various daylighting analysis programs such as AGI 32.
Download
Chhaya 2.0
Green Footstep is an assessment tool for reducing carbon emissions from building construction projects. Architects, engineers, developers, and others can use this tool on commercial and residential projects. Please visit the Green Footstep website to get started.
Rocky Mountain Institute is pleased to introduce two tools that can help architects quickly evaluate the sustainability of their designs.
Chhaya 2.0© is an Excel-based design tool that helps designers optimize glazing size and orientation, shading and natural ventilation to extend the period that the building can run passively. Using TMY2 weather data and a series of matrices, Chhaya’s interactive features allow users to see instantaneously the effects of changing window sizes, shades, and ventilation rates.
These features can give architects the information they need to assess and optimize a building’s heat gain and glare control, two factors that ultimately affect the need for cooling and electric lighting.
The shading information from Chhaya can be added to a Google SketchUp model and imported into various daylighting analysis programs such as AGI 32.
Download
Chhaya 2.0
Green Footstep is an assessment tool for reducing carbon emissions from building construction projects. Architects, engineers, developers, and others can use this tool on commercial and residential projects. Please visit the Green Footstep website to get started.