Climate Responsive Design Tool

The Climate Responsive Design Tool project helps design professionals quickly answer feasibility questions for energy efficient design strategies on a project-specific basis. It provides unique visualizations that synthesize climate data with use patterns and architectural and passive system design for natural ventilation, night ventilation of mass, evaporative cooling, solar heating, and daylighting.

The tool educates design teams on how to interpret relevant climate data and make connections to climate-appropriate strategies. The tool can also be used to encourage owners to make an early commitment to passive low energy design and the integrated design process by illustrating the feasibility of energy saving strategies.

This tool was developed in collaboration with the University of Idaho Integrated Design Lab. Inquiries about printed compilations of the plots can be made to ESBL. Click here for more information.

This tool was developed in part with support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It has not been formally reviewed by the EPA. The views expressed are solely those of the authors, and the EPA does not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned.