What role does software play toward designing holistically

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The idea of designing holistically in tune with all economic, social and environmental outcomes is the goal of sustainable development. In order to achieve the vision of holistic design there needs to be an increased awareness of all the interactions that take place between all three of these elements. That’s a tall order to fill, as we continue to unlock new understanding that turns previous insights upside down.

Software provides the means to amass a great deal of information, to uncover relationships with analytical tools, and to constantly adjust our approaches. Where previously we might have had to rewrite the books when we gained new understanding, with digital data and models it’s simply a matter of tweaking our input with new assumptions in order to gain new insights.

Integrated Design

The means to achieve a holistic design lies in the ability of software to bridge the knowledge among different disciplines. The process of pulling together an understanding of the whole from different domain expertise requires a construct of individual work spaces that mesh knowledge seamlessly together for the whole project.

Software aids communication and provides the framework for an incremental project evolution. Some control of the process is needed for a collaborative effort, and software provides the means to guide the process along in a structured and measured fashion.

A strong vision of the whole is aided by software that helps interpret design conflicts and issues with the interface to the natural world. For insight into the interface between structural, electrical and heating/cooling, the conflicts become clear when viewed as a 3D design. 3D viewing of the whole provides an ability to fully explore the design and uncover issues with structure or appearance. For other more subtle interactions that can’t be uncovered with our eyes, such as environmental reactions to materials or siting, an evolution of software to contain machine intelligence will become important.

Engaging Reality

As designs become reality, they often neglect important aspects of their surroundings that aren’t discovered until something is built. With a holistic design approach, the design incorporates information and inputs of the surroundings as the design evolves. Sophisticated models that incorporate environmental inputs such as weather and lighting for all four seasons aid the design process. There are also increasingly intelligent design environments that take a close look at the energy efficiency and costs of the building design.

Sensors have an expanding role to play in helping to manage the building when it’s built, but to also provide a detailed understanding of the site before and during the design process. Sensors have the ability to feed computer models in order to build up a detailed knowledge of site characteristics. They also provide real-time information to input into the model as it evolves or to raise alerts to changing conditions.

Software provides the means to visualize and fuse all the different inputs so that the project fits seamlessly into reality. The complexity of combining all these inputs into a holistic view requires a system approach, where visualization and analytics can be done individually and as a whole.

Ensuring Openness

There are barriers that still need to be overcome in order to achieve the full promise of our digital age. Chief among these is to tackle interoperability that stands in the way between different tool users that can’t interchange their data or models.

An open approach will bring together existing providers and users together with an array of new practitioners, and scientific disciplines. Without software that is open and accessible to new users, the system becomes closed. Software can’t come close to achieving a holistic vision when it cuts off collaboration.

Openness also relates to the need for backward compatibility in our information and models. In order to built up a repository of details about the interaction between the manmade and natural world, it’s necessary to build a long-term framework for the creation of a detailed and easily accessible archive. The archive of information and knowledge becomes a critical element to inform design, with greater understanding achieved through each successive effort.

Software dramatically accelerates our understanding of complex interactions. It also records our knowledge and information so that we can built organically upon our understanding of our complex world, ensuring that future generations can advance their way of life while decreasing impacts on our planet. Without software, and compounding digital data, we wouldn’t have a hope to achieve sustainability.