“Embodied Environmental Impact Planning with Tally®:  A Case Study”

The Tally® Life Cycle Assessment App is a Revit plugin that allows architects and other building professionals to conduct Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) using BIM as part of standard architectural practice. 

Our ability to use simulation to predict operational energy and associated carbon emissions of buildings has improved tremendously over the last decade. But what about the emissions associated with the materials used to construct and maintain buildings? Accounting for the impact of materials at every stage of building life: from construction, to use, and through the eventual demolition and material recovery, taken collectively, form the basis of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The advent of BIM-integrated LCA tools like Tally have made the process of LCA accessible during design, enabling architects and engineers to understand the environmental impact their material selection decisions will have both before the building is occupied and well after their involvement with the project is over.  

This session will provide an overview of the foundational concepts underpinning LCA and the story of how Tally was created to put the power of LCA directly into the hands of designers. This introduction will be followed by a recently completed LCA optimization exercise conducted on a current developer project, demonstrating how to integrate life cycle analysis into early design. The presentation will conclude with an overview of the carbon reduction value proposition made by the design team that was responsive to the fiscal requirements of the client.  

Roderick Bates, LEED AP BD+C

Roderick brings to market the technology developed by KieranTimberlake, managing the transition of internal, bespoke tools to those capable of being used by the greater design community. Roderick interprets ecological, economic, climate, social, and site data to inform sustainable building design and assists architectural teams to envision design modifications to improve a building's energy performance and thermal comfort, leveraging novel tools to generate actionable information.  

Brandon Cuffy, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Brandon is a Design Researcher in Computation (DRC) at KieranTimberlake. As a DRC, Brandon leverages his background in architecture and scripting to develop tools that address mutli-variate design problems and implements novel workflows that increase efficiency within digital design platforms. He graduated with a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Virginia and holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is a licensed architect and LEED BD+C accredited professional.