How to Maximize Data-Driven Design to Create More Sustainable Projects

GIULIA PUSTORINO: Hello. Today, I am going to speak about how to maximize data-driven design to create a more sustainable project. Here is the safe harbor statement that Autodesk provide to me.

And I'm Giulia Pustorino. I'm an architect. And I'm the team manager of Weston Williamson + Partners. I have an interest in innovative solutions and a strong background in BIM process. For this reason, I'm responsible to develop the long term vision for BIM across our studios. Beyond what I do for Weston Williamson, I'm part of the global team of Women in BIM because I believe that we need to raise awareness about the role of women in leadership roles in digital construction.

Weston Williamson is part of Egis. Egis is an engineering group that have the aim to enter in the construction engineering global top 10 in the following years. And we believe that the digital engineering department will have a crucial role for this role. Egis is the fifth engineering group in France and is doing a position across all the world at the moment. We have a unique offer based on three main pillars, urban and sustainable living, mobility, energy, and industry. And we follow the project since concept to the commissioning.

The presence of Egis is all across the world as it is for Weston Williamson. As you can see from this map, we have a studio in Canada. We have studios in Australia, Saudi Arabia, and China. The main office is in London and where I am based now. And from the black flags, you can see where we develop our design and our project, almost everywhere in the world.

We have various types of projects. We do master planning, residential. We do landscape. But the things that make us recognizable a lot on the market is what we do for transportation projects. And this here that we won several awards. What we do is to deliver high quality design. And we do it with three main values. That is we place people at the heart of everything that we do. We are inventive. And we are responsible for the environment and social awareness. And now I'm going to show you how that's reflected in our job. However, in the position of BIM manager, what I do is to work with them, the architects in my company. And my aim is make the climate emergency our absolute priority.

So let's dig in in a case study. Unfortunately, the project that we are following in this moment with Forma, the software that I'm going to present today, they are all confidential projects. So for this, reason I cannot present during this course. So what I did is to take a project that at the moment is in construction and I validate our design intent using the workflow that we are currently using in the project that they are under design at the moment.

The project that I'm showing to you today is the Old Street Station, an underground station in the city center of London. And here you can see a picture of what was the site before our intervention. As you can see, it's a roundabout. And the building that we are redesigning is exactly in the middle of this roundabout. It's very difficult to access. And as you can see, there is lots of traffic going on. And we think that with our design, we can improve a lot the site.

As often happens in this type of project, we inherited a design. The client came to us with already a vision. And they already thought that it was a good idea to transform the roundabout in a peninsula. And this is the building that they were thinking to develop. As you can see, there is a nice road with a tree and a very small building in the center of the peninsula.

What do we do when we receive a design, as it was in this case? We take a piece of paper and a pen and we start to sketch our design. And as traditional we talk with our client is creating a physical model that show to the client our intent and make them aware about the space that we are developing. But our design process is not linear.

We don't go straight with a straight line from concept to delivery. Our workflow go up and down, back and forth. And we keep iterating our design intent until we don't find the best solution, not only one solution. And this is all done with the disconnected relationship between us and the engineer. These are just too much so we cannot ask them to analyze every iteration of our design and show us the sustainable data that are behind our design. We can do it only to milestone.

So what I was looking for was a software that is simple to use, that improve collaboration, and unlock smarter design decisions. Another key aspect for me was to find something that was able to work with both Rhino that we use it in an early stage of our projects and with Revit. That is the software that we choose for delivering the project. And Forma guaranteed us a seamless connection between the two softwares.

So since when we start to do design is the design of our project, we know what makes a project more sustainable or less sustainable. And we embed our sketch and our design intent with this vision. What was missing was to quantify the benefit of the data, of the sustainable elements of this project, and have the possibility to show them to the client.

And here is our little jewel in the middle of the peninsula. You can recognize it from the green rooftop and this road of three that will bring you to the underground station. As you can see from this picture, there is not only the traffic and the roads around the buildings but there are some historical buildings that we aim to enhance with our design.

What I did with Forma was to validate our design and to show how even the small building and this tiny intervention in the middle of a roundabout is going to improve the microclimate, minimize the wind, minimize the shading, and maximize the daylight in the building itself.

The reason why I'm quite fond of Forma and I'm promoting it a lot among my architects is because the data and how they are presented. If you focus for one second to the wind, you can see that the data are presented as you are comfortable to sit, to stand, or, if it's red, that means that it's uncomfortable and you need to run away.

So as I said before, our [INAUDIBLE] come with the design. We have an inherited design. And we start to look at this project. And I'm sure that you are doing the same. You are looking at that and doing evaluation. And this is what happened when we received the design. And looking at this design, it's quite industrial. And it doesn't have that appeal that we were looking for for our client.

The next step after that, we evaluated the design, is to evaluate the environment. And with Forma, I can create a baseline of the environment around the building. I can understand the sun, the wind, and the microclimate. This will serve to me in the following design step of the project as a baseline. It will help me to understand if I'm improving the space around my building or if my choices are wrong and I need to review them.

So let's see. As I said, we start to iterate. We start to look at our design and how it can be better. And when we do it, we can do it directly in Forma. And already when we are in Forma in this design mode, we can visualize the color and understand the difference between on the left is the inherited option and on the right my fifth iteration.

And this already helps to understand what is happening. I just moved this slide to visualize the color only where there are light for more than five hours per day. But the power of this software is that it is able to give me the data and I can go and take the data in precise points. In this way, I can compare the left, the inherited option, and the right in front with the client and show them how the daylight inside my station is improving. Imagine-- put yourself in my situation. I'm a woman who needs to enter in an underground station. And I don't feel safe. But in the moment that the entrance of this station is full of daylight and is bright, I will feel much more safe.

And now I can tell this story. And I can prove this story with the data. I can give it to the client a tangible picture that show what I'm telling will help their intent. But as I said before, we are not happy about one solution. We want the best solution. And so we keep iterating our design to look what can improve this space. And in this case, we want to look at our experience with the bridge and viaduct to change the support of the roof. We thought that if we were centralizing the support, we could minimize the amount of materials and minimize the shading.

While we were doing this evaluation, there were other evaluations that we took in account. And the client was suggesting to create this promenade of light. While you are walking towards the station, you walk with a green way that brings you to the entrance. And we thought that it was a nice feature to terminate it with a green roof. In addition, as I showed before, on the side of my building, there are some historical buildings. And I want to improve the experience of the passenger and give them the possibility to see this building and to rotate the roof. We thought it was a good idea.

And once again, we are enter our idea in Forma. And while we were designing, we could see what was changing. And we could go there with our clients and check the point. And we saw that our design intent wasn't only nice for the space surrounding for the heritage building but it was a good idea even to improve the daylight inside the station and make the journey of the passenger from outside to the train much, much better.

But designing a building like this one, you don't need it only inside the building. You leave that building even from the outside. When you think to a building of an underground station, you think to the journey of the person that from this office is going to the station because you want to go home or you are thinking to a person that goes to the station and wait to their friends that they have to arrive.

So I want to evaluate what is the impact of the building on the surrounding. One, I started to study sustainability. Autodesk was still selling the architect. And I'm quite fond of this picture where that was something that the architect was able to do, the part of the shelter during the day. And I keep doing it because it's a nice picture but it doesn't give me the idea. If I look on the left and on the right, the true option, the fifth iteration and the final option, they look the same.

With Forma, it's that. I can evaluate it and I can show to the client how my new option is creating less shadow on the surrounding. I live in UK. And if you stand outside and the sun is on your skin, it's much nicer than stay in the shadow. So I think that even in this case, Forma is confirming my design intent.

Another aspect that is quite important when you leave the building from outside is the wind. And with Forma, I can see that I have one prevalent wind that that's from west run to the east side. And look at that. It's exactly the same direction of the promenade of life. The client was already suggesting to add trees on this road to improve the journey of their clients. And I want to see the impact of these trees. I imagine that they will help but let's see it with data.

So the first things to do is to do the energy analysis without the trees. And I placed on some picture of some people all around my building to focus your attention on some significant points. As you can see, the main people on this space, they are on an orange spot. That means, in that position, it's comfortable to walk. But in the moment that I'm going I'm going to insert the tree in my analysis, that spot change from walking to strolling. That means that if you are there waiting for your friend, your waiting, the time that you will spend near the station, it will be much more comfortable.

But I want to make your attention to the green part. So if you stand in front of the big facade waiting for your friend to arrive looking inside, you will be comfortable even standing or sitting. And look at that. This was the first picture that we show it to you when I was saying that we know the principle of the sustainability. And we were already putting that there. What was missing? Only the data that I can show to the client that confirm that this is not only a graphic picture. We are improving this space.

Another thing that we are living nowadays is this raising of temperature. And the climate is changing. If you were in London in September, we had a massive heat wave. And the temperatures were very uncomfortable for that time of the year. So when we look at the data, we can see that there is an average data that, in this case, for the 25th of June in London is 20 degrees. But we can see as well that in the worst scenario, we can achieve almost 26 degrees.

With Forma, I can do the analysis with the average temperature. But the nice thing is that I can further improve my building as well because Forma gives me the possibility to analyze the worst scenario, in this case 26 degrees in London. And the trees, they will help this because every one of us have the experience of walking where there are some trees. And you experience that being in the shadow of a tree is much nicer than being in the shadow of a building. And with Forma, I can do the analysis.

And already with these two plants that are in design mode, you can see how in the promenade of light, when I have the trees, the temperatures are much more pleasant. The trees help to lower down the temperature in that area that will be the journey for you to arrive to the station or to go away from the station. And after, I can go there and I can compare the data. I can spot some significative point and I can see that with the tree, I have an average of three degree less. And so your experience there will be much, much better.

In the end, I can see that what we put together as a nice design is not only a nice design. It's improving the environment outside and inside the building. And Forma asked me to communicate it to the client during our meeting because I could quantify the elements that embed in my design because I knew that, as a principle, they were the best choice to do.

But the sustainability is not only environmental analysis. There are economic aspects that we need to care about. And there are social concepts that all together we need to put together to understand the space around the building and the building itself to create the best design possible. However, what Forma does is that it gives to the architect the data. So it empowers us with the data. And it helps us to make the better decision for the space that we are designing.

And now let's go for the conclusion. Egis is committed to innovation. And it's dedicated to deliver value to our client while shaping the future of our industry. As Weston Williamson, we have a history of the best passenger in our station. And now that we found Forma, we are quite positive for our futures. Thank you for spending this time to me and listen my presentation.