Ecotect website now live!

Great to see the Ecotect website live again....with new look!
http://www.squ1.com/ "Our customer support services have been an issue for some time. Turning this around is our primary focus for 2008 and beyond. It will take us a bit of time to get up to speed, but we are committed and determined to making the investments and improvements required." Ecotect

Autodesk Expands Sustainable Design Product Portfolio

"Acquisitions of Analysis Technologies from Green Building Studio and Carmel Software Will Help Architects and Engineers Leverage Power of Building Information Modeling to Design More Efficient Buildings".

Autodesk announced on Feb 12 2008 that it has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of Green Building Studio, an innovative provider of web-based building energy analysis that enables architects and engineers to easily perform whole building energy analysis early in the design process.

Green Building Studio provides the ability to quickly and efficiently analyze building design proposals, providing building performance information to support sustainable design. Autodesk currently plans to continue support for the Green Building Studio web service and gbXML as an open standard, and to strengthen the web service's integration with its BIM software.

"We have partnered with Autodesk for many years, and commend their ongoing support for sustainability," said John Kennedy, CEO, Green Building Studio.

http://www.autodesk.com/green

Druk White Lotus School - "perhaps the greenest building ever"

Inspired by the vision of His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, the spiritual leader of Ladakh and designed by international architects Arup Associates the buildings combine the best of traditional Ladakhi architecture with 21st century engineering excellence and so act as a model for appropriate, cost effective and sustainable development. http://www.dwls.org/

"The whole project is conceived as a model of appropriate and sustainable design. Building materials are mostly indigenous to Ladakh, with careful auditing of sustainable resource supplies. There is also no imported energy. None of this is achieved by compromising the quality of the architecture or of the interior spaces, which are spacious and light filled." Read more...

Autodesk has sponsored a film of this project which was shown last month at RCA, London with attendance from His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa. The project is I think inspiring for us all, and should be used as a references of how far we can go to green our buildings - this includes Himalayan cultural integration focusing on the needs of young Ladakhis.