Welcome to BUILDlab

This is the grand opening of the BUILDlab website and blog. Dan Strongwater built it at Strongwater Design, and we really appreciate the work it took to build the infrastructure and for the creative input. Thank you, Dan.

We are looking forward to bringing you updates on several lines of work and research that we are pursuing.

  1. We are in the process of building our first major project on Midline Road in Freeville New York. Look forward to regular updates on the process and to developing connections between engineering and architectural analysis, design, legal and financial issues we find as we work, and the art of contracting and construction practices.
  2. BUILDlab is constantly developing new means of practice: we want to know how far the union of computation and design can go. Dave was working on interfaces with self-aware computational environments and CAD design environments when he finished at Cornell’s M.Arch I program. He has been working with the Don Greenberg, Kevin Pratt, and Brandon Hencey at the Program for Computer Graphics to develop new interfaces between architectural design practices and energy simulation software. Dave is headed to SimBuild in New York tomorrow – he is hoping to make connections with other researchers in the field and to gauge the state of the art of simulation software.
  3. Chris has proposed, and we are all following through with, a careful study of the material and energy resources required to construct a house. We are using the Midline Road residence as a preliminary case study. The materials used and the fuel required to deliver the materials from our vendors are being recorded. Construction waste is being sorted, weighed, and recorded to make a preliminary assessment of embodied energy in the house. This is a massive task and the problem of how to quantify embodied energy is a difficult and unresolved problem. So, look forward to insights and musings on trying to handle the problem of  embodied energy in a building.