One of the most difficult challenges confronting architectural students who wish to incorporate sustainable principles of design lies in understanding what are the most appropriate tools to use and how and when to efficiently and effectively integrate them into the design process. This course will provide a practical overview of both the tools and methodologies for incorporating sustainable principles into the design process. Students will be introduced to a number of tools, ranging from the gathering of data, to computational tools such as simulation and visualization.  Numerous case study buildings will used as a means to explicitly demonstrate various benefits of sustainable principles of design through a series of practical design exercises.

Students will assess the various tools through the case study exercises and post their reviews online, the first of an experimental online forum for “tools for low-energy building design.”