With two out of three people living in cities or urban areas by 2050, and a climate crisis rapidly unfolding, the AEC industry is not moving fast enough. Design studies are still mostly developed manually without taking advantage of the rich environmental and contextual information, as well as raw computing power that is available online. The task of researching and translating this data into a building proposal remains time-consuming and too often guided by the architect’s intuition rather than science and method.

Digital Blue Foam helps anyone in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry in the early-stage building design phase by reducing time to produce a study. Projects developed on the web-based tool can be further down-streamed to software used by construction and architecture firms for further development.

Digital Blue Foam uses large data sets and online computing to assist developing and visualize economically and environmentally viable solutions which cater to local needs and demands, within minutes.”

By bringing together multi-source data, powerful generative algorithms, and designer inputs within a user interface, the creators of Digital Blue Foam hope to front-end consideration of factors affecting sustainability, livability, and efficiency to produce better architecture and cities

The latest version released today resolved previously reported bugs and introduces the following features:

• Multi-Source Data Platform: Improved APIs to collect data on local context and a wider radius to catch local programme data: from noodle shops to parks to airports.
• Sustainability Analysis: Key sustainability markers such as heuristic solar radiation analysis, calculation of facade areas and approximation of embodied carbon emissions based on s on volume amount of concrete used.
• Download Store: Options to download and port data in 3D format (.stl) and as images (screenshots).

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