Sustainability by Design
The same tools that make us more efficient can also make us more sustainable
In the traditional architectural design process, architects sit together to come up with ideas, sketch possibilities, and brainstorm solutions to complex problems. But with new digital tools we can reinvent that process, enabling us to create architectural designs that are better for people, the planet, and the bottom line, according to Marco Cicconi and Esbjörn Kjell. They share three projects they worked on for Norwegian firm DARK Arkitekter that demonstrate their digital transformation journey. It started with Barcode, a planning project in downtown Oslo that pushed Revit to its limits, and continued with Agropolis, a mixed use residential and agricultural development outside the city. More recently, they won a competition for the redevelopment of an Oslo educational campus. The team used the AI-driven early-stage design capabilities of Spacemaker to iterate and test their designs for factors ranging from traffic and surface area to noise, the ability to generate solar power, and complex assessments like comfort for residents. They point out that with tools like Spacemaker we can make better decisions earlier in the design process when designers have the most flexibility. This allows us to have the greatest impact on sustainability. They believe that the innovative processes they followed will be commonplace in just a few years, enabling us to reduce resource use, save space, increase productivity, and ultimately make the cities we design more sustainable in every way.
About the speakers
Esbjörn Kjell is an architect and partner at DARK Arkitekter in Oslo, Norway, where he manages the Urban Design team and is part of the office leadership. He holds a degree from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and brings a multidisciplinary background in both early phase concept planning and late-stage technical design.
Marco Ciccone is an architect at DARK Arkitekter, where he’s worked since 2019 with a focus on early-stage design. Ciccone is most interested in new technologies and new ways to incorporate and standardize them into the design process. He holds a degree from the IUAV University in Venice.
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