{"id":3158,"date":"2015-12-22T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/architizer.wpengine.com\/vectorworks-energos\/"},"modified":"2022-05-31T09:49:05","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T13:49:05","slug":"vectorworks-energos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/architizer.com\/blog\/practice\/materials\/vectorworks-energos\/","title":{"rendered":"How Vectorworks\u2019 New Energos Tool Makes Sustainable Design a Snap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fran\u00e7ois L\u00e9vy, AIA, a principal architect at L\u00e9vy Kohlhaas Architecture<\/a> in Austin, Texas, recently jumped at the opportunity to create a residence for Hope House, a nonprofit that started out housing special-needs children who\u2019ve now become adults thanks to advances in medicine. With this one project, L\u00e9vy found a chance to combine his personal philosophies of enriching a community, creating something site-specific, and implementing sustainable design strategies by using an exciting tool that makes efficient building envelopes more feasible than ever before.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe fact that buildings, in their operations alone, contribute to about 40 percent of greenhouse gasses is a significant incentive for me to want to do better,\u201d L\u00e9vy says. However, sustainability is only one environmental aspect that influences L\u00e9vy\u2019s designs. \u201cWhen I was a young designer starting out, I was looking for a design voice. Over time, I came to understand that there was a very rich vein of form-giving to be mined if you really looked and listened very closely to a project\u2019s site. Whether it\u2019s an urban or a rural context, you\u2019re going to get a really different response when you listen to the site: a response that\u2019s appropriate for Austin will certainly not be appropriate for Chicago. So every time I take on a new project, it\u2019s fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the dynamic, and sometimes challenging, climate of Liberty Hill, Texas, 30 miles from downtown Austin, Hope House aspired to add duplexes to its sprawling rural space and render them accessible for people with disabilities. As L\u00e9vy explains, \u201cA lot of the population have aged out of the original setting, become adults, and now need a place to live.\u201d But Hope House had needs of its own, as well. For many nonprofits, finding initial capital for major construction projects is easier than attracting continued donations that will pay for upkeep and \u2014 something especially important in an area with long, intense summers.<\/p>\n

L\u00e9vy needed to create a building that performed, excellently, to the extent that paying electricity bills would not be agonizing. Through many iterations of the initial design, he found there was an incredible synergy between the specific needs of this project, his own personal philosophy, and his access to Vectorworks Architect<\/a> 2016 design software as a beta tester. Using the program\u2019s new energy analysis tool called Energos<\/a>, L\u00e9vy finally arrived at a long, thin building that would connect to the outdoors and admit natural daylight and ventilation while reducing energy usage at the same time.<\/p>\n

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Based on the Passive House calculation method, Vectorworks Architect’s Energos tool gives designers a dynamic gauge of energy performance and efficacy, meaning, for this project, that each new design could build on practical solutions. \u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily about being predictive,\u201d he says. \u201cRather, it\u2019s about making better design decisions for real-world performance.\u201d Specifically, L\u00e9vy was able to manipulate thermal bridging, have more detailed calculations of a material\u2019s impact, and, even, rotate the model in relationship to the sun to clearly see how slight repositioning could change efficiency \u2014 all without needing to export files or run time-consuming comparative analyses.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I would look at alternatives,\u201d says L\u00e9vy, \u201cWhat if we increased the insulation of the walls for our envelope? Is it going to be cost-effective? Maybe we should spend the money on higher quality windows … That\u2019s what Energos is about. It makes it easier to see all that iteratively within the design process. If you\u2019re constantly going back and forth between two different software applications, it discourages you from doing truly thorough investigations. Having that built in under the hood encourages you to do as many iterations as you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

By helping L\u00e9vy to improve on each iteration of his design for both the upcoming construction and continued efficiency in the future, Vectorworks Architect’s Energos tool will allow him to create something sustainable for Hope House residents, a home specifically built for them that is unique in context. But it\u2019s only one of the many benefits L\u00e9vy has found among the over 100 improvements in the new Vectorworks 2016 product line release he says have already made his work easier. \u201cEvery time I beta-test a new version, I think, \u2018This is so much of an improvement, what are they going to do for their next trick?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n