Google's SketchUp Helps Design Go Green

Now that it's integrated with Google Earth and the Google 3D Warehouse, SketchUp is nurturing a growing ecosystem of green design startups

By Celeste LeCompte

Back in 2006, when Google acquired startup @Last and its 3D modeling product, SketchUp, most observers saw it as a nice add-on for Google Earth, perfect for hobbyists and enthusiasts. But since then, the SketchUp program has blossomed into a tool in its own right, used by design professionals to fashion everything from consumer products to urban landscapes to country homes.

Green design professionals are particularly taken with the program. Widely praised by the architecture and design community for its "intuitive" nature, SketchUp, one of the few 3D rendering programs on the market, is also by far the easiest one to use. And its integration with Google Earth and the Google 3D Warehouse has elevated the program from a simple design tool to a location-based, product-inclusive architectural design powerhouse. As a result, SketchUp is nurturing a growing ecosystem of green design startups.

Getting energy, water, and carbon information into the design process early on was once a costly, if not impossible, endeavor. But the sooner modeling and analysis tools are involved in the process, the bigger the questions that designers can ask, and the more impact they can have on the final design. "The software tool you choose is always going to arise from the question that you're asking," says Chris Meek, a University of Washington professor who heads up the Integrated Design Lab in Seattle. "What role do these tools have in their design process? What's it going to affect in the design?"

Modeling Landscape Features

Out of the box, SketchUp offers some great features for green design, which the clean-tech-happy Google has been quick to promote. Because it integrates smoothly with Google Earth, SketchUp users can punch in the actual latitude and longitude of their project site to visualize buildings in their real-life context. That not only helps designers communicate to their clients how the project will look, but allows them to accurately model how nearby landscape features and structures will cast shadows over the building—useful for fine-tuning a building's site orientation or window placement to cut energy use, or for positioning solar panels.