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University of Idaho
Integrated Design Lab

CODEX

Climate-Oriented Design Explorer

Brown & DeKay's Sun, Wind & Light design methods, brought to life for early schematic design

This suite recovers the graphic climate-analysis methods from Sun, Wind & Light: Architectural Design Strategies (Brown & DeKay, 3rd ed.) and rebuilds them as fast, self-contained web tools. These methods were never abandoned for lack of accuracy — they were abandoned because they were slow to draw by hand. Automating them returns them to the schematic phase, where they have the greatest design leverage.

Every tool runs entirely in the browser, works for 21 Idaho cities out of the box, and accepts your own EPW weather file for any site worldwide.

Phase 1 · Available now

Climate as Context

Characterize the site — sun, wind, daylight, and thermal comfort — the foundation for every design response.

Phase 2 · Available now

Schematic Design Energy Analysis

Heat gain and loss, balance point, and the passive cooling strategies — cross and stack ventilation, night-flushed mass, passive solar, and earth-tube pre-conditioning — from the SWL companion workbook, without simulation software.

Phase 3 · Available now

Energy, Carbon & Net-Zero

Carry the schematic numbers through to annual heating and cooling energy, EUI and operational carbon, and PV sizing to reach net-zero.

Foundation 1 tool
Load and inspect the climate dataset that feeds every other tool.
🌤️ Weather Data Parser Upload an EPW file and inspect hourly temperature, humidity, wind, and solar data with climate summaries and extremes. EPW · Site characterization Open tool → 
Sun & Light 7 tools
Solar geometry and shadows, radiation, sky cover, daylight availability and obstructions, and shading need.
☀️ Sun Path Diagram Stereographic sun paths for any site — altitude and azimuth at every hour, month, and solstice/equinox. Solar geometry Open tool → 🕰️ Sundial — Shadow Simulator Cast real shadows across a site plan for any date and solar time — drag in CBECS building footprints and trees and watch sun and shade move. Technique A1 · Shadow study Open tool → 🔆 Solar Radiation Analysis Surface radiation by orientation and tilt, with heating-degree-day vs. winter-radiation comparisons across Idaho cities. Radiation availability Open tool → ☁️ Sky Cover Clear, partly cloudy, or overcast — monthly normals and a mean-cover heatmap by hour and month, classified over daylight hours. Technique A8 Open tool → 🌅 Daylight Availability Calendar Available vs. useful daylight hours by month and hour, computed purely from solar geometry with an adjustable altitude threshold. Daylight geometry Open tool → 🏙️ Daylight Obstructions Project neighbouring buildings and terrain onto the sun path to see when they block direct sun — and how much of the sky they take. Technique A10 Open tool → ⛱️ Shading Calendar When shading is needed — hour by hour across the year — measured against the building's balance point, with fixed vs. operable analysis. Technique A26 Open tool → 
Wind 2 tools
Directional and temporal wind patterns for ventilation and shelter strategy.
🧭 Wind Rose Wind frequency and speed by direction, by season — a 16-point polar rose with calm-period accounting. Wind patterns Open tool → 🌬️ Wind Square Wind direction and speed by time of day and month — the temporal complement to the rose, showing when the wind blows, not just from where. Technique A5 Open tool → 
Thermal Comfort 2 tools
Which passive strategies the climate rewards — in psychrometric space and across the calendar.
🌡️ Bioclimatic Chart Plots your hourly climate onto Givoni-Milne strategy zones — comfort, passive solar, ventilation, mass, and evaporative cooling. Givoni-Milne method Open tool → 🗓️ Climate Carpet Every hour of the year on one grid — 365 days by 24 hours — recolored by the passive strategy each hour rewards. The temporal complement to the Bioclimatic Chart. Strategy carpet · A-series Open tool → 
Schematic Design Energy Analysis Phase 2–3
One integrated tool spanning heat gain to net-zero, plus the envelope and loads calculators that feed it.
🏗️ Integrated Energy Analysis Heat gain and loss, balance point, cross/stack/night-flush and passive-solar strategies, earth-tube pre-conditioning, then annual energy, EUI & carbon, and PV sizing to net-zero — all interlinked, with portable .codex.json save/load. SWL companion workbook · Phase 2–3 Open tool → 🧮 TEST — Thermal Energy Savings Tabulator Hourly building load and energy model (ASHRAE Radiant Time Series), ported from the IDL TEST workbook — compares a baseline against a proposed design for annual heating and cooling energy, EUI, and the resulting savings. Thermal energy savings · IDL tool Open tool → 🧱 Construction Insulation Value Calculator Layer-by-layer R-value and U-factor for wall, roof, and floor assemblies, with parallel-path framing analysis and a drawn-to-scale section. Envelope heat transfer · IDL tool Open tool → 💨 Infiltration Rate Converter Convert between infiltration metrics — ACH, ACH50, the LBL model with terrain factors, and EnergyPlus coefficients — with typical-value references. Ventilation & infiltration · IDL tool Open tool → 🏢 CBECS Loads Commercial electric, water, lighting, and equipment loads from 2018 CBECS microdata — the internal-gains feed and footprint source for the suite. Loads & program Open tool → 

University of Idaho Integrated Design Lab · idlboise.com

Methodology: G.Z. Brown & Mark DeKay, Sun, Wind & Light: Architectural Design Strategies, 3rd edition. Tools are self-contained — no external dependencies, no data leaves your browser.

CODEX_User_Guide.pdf