A new suite of design applications is in development at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney to help architects and urban planners optimise their designs for greater sustainability. According to a statement, the apps use machine learning to target the reduction of construction waste and urban heat, to minimise the “embedded carbon footprint of buildings”.
Lead researcher Associate Professor M. Hank Haeusler, Director of Computational Design at UNSW’s School of Built Environment, explains in the statement that the tools will help built environment professionals make more sustainable decisions, highlighting that 10 to 15 per cent of all materials brought onto a construction site end up as waste.
He says: “We’re applying a computational eye to these [today’s] global problems. Landfill, pollution, [the way different] materials [contribute to climate change]. [As researchers] we have a moral responsibility to look into this.”
The UNSW waste reduction app contains a computer program based on intelligence from data from public hardware sites that calculates the materials required for a given design. The design’s size and scale can then be adjusted to reduce waste offcuts. The team is also developing an app based on similar principles that helps reduce the urban heat island effect.
“By translating foundational research into practical industry tools, these applications make sustainable practices more achievable,” explains Associate Professor Haeusler. As a result, they “democratise architecture and design practices, uplifting the benefits of research and development for a broader market”.
