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Building Planning

Building Planning

Smarter Cities with DBF Engine

DBF integrates urban data with sustainability metrics and tools like the Urbn Index to empower city planners. Through Scenario Planning and alignment with Quality of Life programs, we help shape Lifetime projects that deliver more livable, resilient urban environments.

Building Planning

How DBF Engine Enhances Urban Planning

City planners and government agencies face an overwhelming amount of data that is often silod, demographics, amenity planning, green access, infrastructure allocation, heat-island performance, environmental metrics, and more. DBF Engine processes and analyzes a wide range of authoritative and or open source datathis data to generate actionable recommendations, helping planners make informed decisions. Creating in-house quick scenarios and reporting supported by LLM’s enhance workflows in unprecedented ways.

Our platform enables:

Massing + Typology
Generation

Massing + Typology
Generation

Environmental
Context Awareness

Environmental
Context Awareness

Real-Time KPIs

Real-Time KPIs

Seamless
BIM Integration

Seamless
BIM Integration

Parcel or Zoning Optimization

Scenario
Modelings

Climate Resilience Planning

Scenario
Modelings

QUality of  
analysis

Scenario
Modelings

Advantages

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Unit Generation for Optimal Space Utilization

Automatically generate and validate apartment, office, or hotel unit layouts by defining minimum unit dimensions and desired unit sizes.

Generate Massing with Custom Typologies

Choose from default typologies or create custom massing models that dynamically adapt to changes in input parameters or regulations.

Photorealistic 3D Context

Incorporate detailed 3D photorealistic datasets into your designs, capturing surrounding buildings, landscape features, and street elements to deliver a lifelike representation of the project’s environment.

Drag-and-Drop Inputs and Constraints

Easily upload and incorporate volumetric constraints to ensure your designs adhere to building heights, setbacks, separation, and site coverage guidelines.

Camiel Weijenberg, CEO AND COFUNDER OF DBF

Cities face major challenges—from climate breakdown and resource scarcity to rapid urbanization and inequality. At Digital Blue Foam, we empower planners with intelligent insights to design resilient, inclusive, and sustainable cities.

Use Cases for DBF Engine at the City Scale

High-Rise Commercial Towers

Generate massing models that maximize usable floor area, comply with zoning codes, and optimize natural light penetration for commercial developments

Mixed-Use Developments

Evaluate multiple layout configurations to balance residential, commercial, and public space needs while maintaining sustainability targets.

Educational and Institutional Buildings

Design campuses with energy-efficient buildings by analyzing solar exposure, airflow, and proximity to key infrastructure.

Sustainable Housing Projects

Develop residential communities that incorporate passive design principles and optimized building envelopes, reducing carbon footprints.

Hospitality and Resort Developments

Generate and refine hotel and resort layouts to maximize the number of units while maintaining quality, compliance, and guest experience.

Frequently
asked questions

Common questions from our prospects.

What is sustainability in building design?

Sustainability in building design is how efficiently the building saves resources while being built and in operation. A building is designed as per functional and aesthetic requirements. Still, it becomes sustainable only when it is a building that doesn’t add to the amount of carbon and doesn’t waste resources, and many more criteria that help the environmental health. Some aspects that are taken care of are life cycle assessment and structure design efficiency. A Life Cycle Assessment is the systematic analysis of the potential environmental impacts of products or services during their entire life cycle. Apart from this, attention is paid to details like material efficiency, waste reduction, and leaving over the most negligible carbon footprint. Water efficiency and energy efficiency are managed through various methods. There are many steps taken to make sure that the users would have indoor environmental quality enhanced, and the building could achieve thermal comfort.

What is sustainable urban planning?

Urban planning places all the features, including buildings, landscapes, neighborhoods, etc., in a town or city. Sustainable urban planning refers to planning to locate the parts of town so that people can witness green buildings, mixed-use developments, walkable neighborhoods, open spaces, alternative energy sources, transit options, accessible amenities while keeping a balance with being approachable, attractive, and environment friendly. A sustainable urban environment also conforms to the idea that a city can be organized without excessive reliance on the surrounding countryside and power itself with renewable sources of energy. Self-sufficiency and resilience are also some factors that cities and towns can achieve to be sustainable. The concept of 15-minute cities encourages sustainable urban planning while keeping the infrastructure accessible to all. These cities have all the amenities a regular household needs within 15 minutes of walking or bicycling and are a great way to reduce dependence on motor vehicles.

How do you create a sustainable building?

To create a sustainable building, we need to check that the building leaves a minuscule carbon footprint. The AEC industry is responsible for 40% of carbon emissions in the world. So, to create a sustainable building, we need to make sure of some basic parameters. First of all, the construction material should be eco-friendly and robust. The waste generated from the building should be treated concerning the environment. As designers, there are many factors in designing that can affect the sustainability of a building, which can be creatively handled. Orientation of buildings and the fenestrations as per the sun-path and increasing natural daylight reduce artificial sources. Also, alternate energy sources like solar energy can be tapped for saving more on energy. The right amount of planned ventilation can help maintain thermal comfort and indoor air quality. Using some particular building techniques can help the labor and building process by being reusable and easy to use.

How does Digital Blue Foam analyze sustainability?

We provide, precise and up-to-date, wind analysis and solar studies for any given site location and time period. 


Solar studies involve shadow and radiation analysis, and dynamic daylight metrics like Daylight Autonomy (DA) and Spatial Daylight Autonomy (sDA). You can focus on comparing sustainability of different design options and creating value for your clients, without worrying about any setup requirements.


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