Empowering Architects with Early-Stage Environmental Intelligence

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Michele Pescatore, Carol Fanjul · AiA Life Designers

Michele Pescatore and Carol Fanjul of AiA Life Designers present a simulation-driven workflow that brings environmental analysis into the earliest stages of architectural design, where decisions have the greatest influence on a project's environmental performance but actionable feedback is usually missing.

Conventional environmental tools require detailed BIM models or expert-level parametrization, so studies become outdated as a project evolves. To close that gap, AiA Life Designers built a streamlined Revit plug-in using Rhino.Inside.Revit, Grasshopper, and the open-source Honeybee and Ladybug ecosystems. It delivers simplified but meaningful indicators directly in the architect's working environment: envelope performance checks, site permeability, carbon impact estimates, and solar and daylight analyses.

The result is real-time, performance-based feedback that lets architects test assumptions, adjust parameters, and see environmental implications well before formal engineering studies begin, without disrupting existing design processes. The presentation covers real-world project case studies, concrete outcomes, and the scalability of these tools across a large architectural organization.

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