Annual technology award highlights "best of breed" case studies

KT Innovations, an affiliate of KieranTimberlake, today announced that its newly-released Tally™ application for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has received a Building Information Modeling (BIM) Award from the American Institute of Architects. The award, given by the Technology in Architectural Practice (TAP) Knowledge Community of the AIA, highlights best practices in Building Information Modeling, a technology that uses 3D models to design, inform, and communicate about building projects. Now in its tenth year, the program shows the evolution of BIM from a specialized tool to a staple of architectural design that continues to break new ground.

Noted for Process and Technology Innovation Integrating with BIM

This is the first year the BIM Award has included software, making Tally, a joint software development project from KT Innovations, PE INTERNATIONAL, and Autodesk®, the inaugural recipient in the Process and Technology Innovation Integrating with BIM category. The jurors commended Tally as “one of the first applications that truly uses BIM as a life cycle process. It understands the issues we are trying to model in a certain level of detail.”

Tally enables LCA on demand throughout the BIM process—from design through construction—tracking information across eight life cycle impact categories that align with LEED® v4 and other rating systems. It is the first application for Autodesk Revit® that quantifies the environmental impact of building materials. Tally leverages and extends BIM material takeoff capabilities, accelerating a user's ability to create a realistic bill of materials and gather quick insight into the ecological tradeoffs of different design scenarios. 
 
“Tally is at the leading edge of technology empowering architects to achieve the best possible design,” says Phil Bernstein, Vice President of Strategic Industry Relations at Autodesk. “Getting an immediate understanding of decisions as they are made will change the design process, increase the value of the architect's contribution to the environment, and result in greatly improved buildings.” 
 
While working in a Revit model, Tally users correlate elements to a custom LCA database built on PE INTERNATIONAL's GaBi software, the largest environmental dataset for LCA. GaBi is used by leading corporations worldwide for both internal and critically-reviewed published studies. 
Tally generates a variety of reports that provide an important layer of decision-making information within the same time frame and pace as building designs are developed. 
 
“Building product manufacturers and suppliers are working diligently to document their product-specific impact information. Tally provides manufacturers with a seamless way to put their branded information at the fingertips of the design professional during the design phase when it matters most,” states Heather Gadonniex, director of building and construction for PE INTERNATIONAL.  
 
The eight winning projects, profiled on the AIA TAP BIM Awards website, will be honored during the AIA National Convention in Chicago on June 25.  
 
Tally is available through the Autodesk Exchange app store and at www.choosetally.com.