Specialist information: Sustainable design teams, methods and tools in international practice
In recent years, the so-called 'greening' of architecture has produced a new class of experts and professionals. Some of the world's leading architectural practices have set up specialist teams with a focus on sustainability (Fig. 1). These teams leverage the power of advanced modelling and environmental simulation to explore new frontiers of sustainable design. They work on multiple design projects, usually at early design stages, engaging in dialogue with design teams in order to define targets and design strategies (Fig. 3). Furthermore, the majority of teams also collaborate with educational institutions and research laboratories. New approaches, technologies and computational design methods are tested on real projects, thus bridging the gap between research and development on one hand, and practice on the other.
