HONGXI DESIGN
GeoBuild
GeoBuild is a node-based AI tool designed for architects that enables context-aware material system exploration and early-stage insight into building carbon.
Date
May - Dec. 2025
Category
Decision support
Node-based
Tool design
Role
End-to-end Project Lead
UX & System Designer
Other Information
@ Berkeley Spatial System Lab
What is GeoBuild?
Carbon Impact Considerations in Building Design Process
Why architects cannot use current LCA tools?
Too professional
Current LCA tools are primarily built for specialized LCA practitioners rather than architects. As a result, they tend to be too technical and have a steep learning curve for design teams.
Too fixed (BIMs required)
Many LCA workflows depend on detailed BIM-based data entry for accuracy. In early design, that level of model completeness is rarely available, and the analysis often offers limited reference value in early-stage decision-making.
Problem analysis
Problem Statement
How can we help architects understand the carbon impact of their material choices using only the vague, limited information available at the early design stage?
Architect’s way of thinking
Solution: Node-based interaction
Through interviews with 5 architects and architecture students and by observing how they explain design decisions, I mapped a recurring communication pattern.
They start from stable project “givens” that are set early and rarely change (e.g., site, building type). These givens are then interpreted into requirements and constraints, which ultimately shape design concepts and become the criteria for evaluating and iterating those concepts.
This insight directly informed GeoBuild’s interaction design. A node-based interface mirrors architects’ evidence-to-constraint-to-concept workflow, making dependencies and causal relationships explicit while supporting flexible exploration in early design stages.
Reorganizing information architecture for architects
The Workflow of GeoBuild
Interface Design
Nodes
Information Panels
User Tests
Timeline & Goal
Throughout the design process, I conducted continuous user testing to ensure that each iteration was informed by real user feedback rather than assumptions. The goal of these user tests was not to benchmark performance against existing tools, but to evaluate whether the node-based interaction model aligned with users’ reasoning processes, supported early-stage decision-making, and made system assumptions and comparisons legible.
Reflections & Next Steps
Material Tracebility / Supply Chain Transparency
By foregrounding material provenance and supply chain data, GeoBuild reframes sustainability as a design decision rather than a post-hoc verification. Making materials traceable not only reveals the carbon implications of sourcing choices, but also encourages greater transparency across the supply chain. In this way, the tool positions architects as active agents who can influence upstream practices by privileging locally available, lower-impact, and better-documented materials.
A Shared Space for Cross-Stakeholder Collaboration
Due to the flexibility of a node-based system, GeoBuild is conceived as a collaborative space that integrates multiple data sources and invites contributions from different stakeholders. By connecting environmental databases, material libraries, and contextual datasets, the platform creates opportunities for architects, researchers, and industry partners to work from a shared evidentiary ground. This multi-party integration supports sustainability as a collective effort.
Integrating Sustainability into Existing Design Workflows
GeoBuild is designed as an extensible system that can integrate with existing design software and workflows. By remaining interoperable and workflow-aware, the platform lowers adoption barriers and opens up the possibility of future integrations, such as plugins or connected services, that embed carbon reasoning directly into everyday design tools. This positions sustainability as a scalable layer of architectural decision-making that can evolve alongside professional practice.