PAYETTE People at ABX: Part I

Attending ArchitectureBoston Expo (ABX) 2017? This year we are very excited to lead sessions on several different topics including sustainability and architectural tools. Below are more details on our sessions.

Glass Facades + Occupant Comfort Where’s the Balance Point?
Being thermally comfortable is one of the aspects that occupants value most in a building, research has found. And yet, achieving localized thermal comfort in cold climates is rarely a priority during the design process – it is always assumed that mechanical systems such as perimeter heating will guarantee it. However, with an increased interest in maximizing energy efficiency, façade transparency and building wellness, while minimizing first cost, this model is due for reconsideration. What if the design team could understand, as early as schematics, which façade properties negatively or positively impact winter occupant comfort? What if there were a way to avoid installing perimeter heat by selecting the right glazing geometry and performance? This interactive workshop will walk attendees through several tools available to design teams to understand the impact of glazing geometry and performance on occupant comfort in the winter time. Real case studies, ranging from residential to higher education, will be used to walk the audience through how each tool can be used during different stages of the design process. For each case study attendees will be able to suggest alternative designs to those presented and evaluate, on their mobile devices, their associated risk of discomfort.

Details:
Thursday, November 9 | 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Speakers:
Vera Baranova, Designer, PAYETTE
Chris Mackey, Building Scientist, PAYETTE
Harry Flamm, Sustainability Coordinator, Elkus Manfredi

The Paradigm Shift towards Integrated Façade Design
More than a decade after the advent of BIM software that promised a new integrated design process, most practitioners find themselves with a relatively unchanged struggle to move information between different team members and software interfaces. Learning from this experience, designers are finally shifting focus from “the one model to rule them all” to the computational glue that connects different tools and workflows to one another. Vibrant interdependent ecosystems of plugins, like that which have grown around Grasshopper/Dynamo, along with packages like Flux, that link software interfaces to one another, have enabled an unprecedented level of coordination. Particularly within façade design, such processes have encouraged the sharing of both data and knowledge that has traditionally been siloed among separate interfaces and team members. This session will explore this new paradigm through a series of project case studies and live software demonstrations. It will illustrate a new interlinked software model that synchronizes design iteration, performance analysis, visualization, and documentation within one workflow. The authors of two plugins – Ladybug Tools and SkinDesigner – will present their experiences of integrating their work with both the design processes of projects as well as the larger ecosystem of tools to which they belong.

Details:
Thursday, November 9 | 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Speakers:
Santiago Garay, Digital Modeling and Visualization Manager at PAYETTE
Andrea Love, Director of Building Science at PAYETTE
Christopher Mackey, Building Scientist at PAYETTE

Optimizing the Design Process through Data Migration
How many software platforms do you use in a given day? In a world where architects are asked to wear many hats, it is often necessary to use even more software platforms. To meet the growing complexity of building designs today, architects find themselves compelled to leverage a multitude of platforms throughout the design process. Whether developing concept models in Rhino or documenting your work in Revit, our building information is often scattered across multiple platforms. The result is a divided workflow leading to confusion and the duplication of efforts by the design team. This presentation will examine current strategies and tools to assist in migrating building information across platforms. Through a series of case studies, we will explore different workflow strategies developed to address this growing problem. We will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and the results of their implementation. At the end of the presentation participants will have a clear understanding of current data migration strategies and best practices. This understanding will empower participants to create their own workflows for moving building information seamlessly between platforms, resulting in a more harmonious design process.

Details:
Thursday, November 9 | 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Speakers:
Harry Solie, Designer, PAYETTE
Santiago Garay, Digital Modeling and Visualization Manager, PAYETTE
Dan Weissman, Associate and Director of Lam Labs, Lam Partners

Conference Details:
ArchitectureBoston Expo (ABX)
Boston Convention an Exhibition Center
November 8-10, 2017