Author the project charter before any geometry exists — program, ambitions, and testable goals drawn from the site-forces deck. Goals export in Eco-Architect's own Save/Load-goals format, so the charter travels with the design. Client-side, no account.
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1The project
Name it, then write the program (what it must hold) and the ambitions (what it wants to be). Prose first — the numbers come next.
2Goals — the testable part
Each goal is a clause — a metric, an operator, a target — in exactly the language Eco-Architect scores live. Add them from the forces deck below, import a set, or write one by hand.
No goals yet. Browse the forces deck below and add a move's rule — or seed a starter charter:
Add a goal by hand
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Values are in the metric's native (SI) units, exactly as Eco-Architect stores them. Comfort metrics (HVAC hours, passive comfort) only get live values there once a climate file is loaded.
How goals travel:“Send to Eco-Architect →” hands your committed goals straight over (this browser only — same handoff as Surveyor's site pipe) and opens Eco-Architect, where they land in its GOALS panel and score live as you design. Prefer a file? “Download goals” writes the same JSON Eco-Architect's own “Save goals” produces — load it there with “⭱ Load goals”. Either way, drafts without a committed number stay here until you give them one.
3The forces deck — inspiration with receipts
Read each site force, then commit to moves. Every move carries a testable rule with its provenance and its caveat — borrow the rule, not just the vibe. (This is the same deck Eco-Architect uses.)
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Sun
Where the sun is, and how the form admits winter gain while rejecting summer heat.
Admit winter sun
Open the equator-facing wall to low winter sun.
Rule: Winter solar gain >= baseline ×1.25 (set the number against your design) · must pass · weight 2 Provenance: baseline ×1.25. Caveat: Direct-beam proxy over 15 sun samples; ignores clouds, diffuse light and self-shading.
Reject summer heat
Shade the glass so summer gain stays below winter.
Rule: Overheating ratio (S/W) <= baseline ×0.9 (set the number against your design) · must pass · weight 2 Provenance: baseline ×0.9. Caveat: Summer ÷ winter gain ratio — a balance cue, not a cooling load.
Face the equator
Bias the openings to the sunny face.
Rule: South-facing solar gain >= baseline ×1.2 (set the number against your design) · weighed · weight 1 Provenance: baseline ×1.2. Caveat: Gain through openings whose normal points within ±45° of the equator.
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Wind & air
Turn away from the prevailing wind for shelter — or open up to drive buoyant ventilation.
Turn the short face to the wind
Reduce the windward area you present.
Rule: Wind exposure (windward) <= baseline ×0.8 (set the number against your design) · weighed · weight 2 Provenance: baseline ×0.8. Caveat: Windward projected area (m²); not a CFD pressure field or true Cp.
Avoid wind funnelling
Don't pinch a venturi between walls and plinth.
Rule: Wind channelling <= baseline ×0.8 (set the number against your design) · weighed · weight 1 Provenance: baseline ×0.8. Caveat: Plan throat ratio — a massing cue, not a velocity calc.
Drive stack ventilation (air)
Low inlets, high/roof outlets for buoyant flow.
Rule: Stack ventilation >= baseline ×1.25 (set the number against your design) · weighed · weight 1 Provenance: baseline ×1.25. Caveat: Ideal single-zone buoyancy Q; ignores wind-driven cross-ventilation and partitions.
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Ground
Bed the plinth into the slope for thermal mass and shelter — or perch it clear of the ravine.
Rule: Thermal mass ratio >= baseline ×1.2 (set the number against your design) · weighed · weight 1 Provenance: baseline ×1.2. Caveat: Slab capacity ÷ enclosed volume; ignores which mass is actually coupled to the air.
Perch above the ravine
Keep the floor clear of the ground.
Rule: Buried fraction <= 0.1 0–1 · weighed · weight 1 Provenance: perched ≤ 0.1. Caveat: The opposite move — surfaced so the trade-off is explicit.
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Contamination
A capped Superfund site: the engineered cap IS the remedy. Bedding into the earth — a virtue one card up — here means cutting the barrier that keeps the waste in place. Design ON the cap, not INTO it.
Cap extent, depth and the waste below it are NOT modelled — this deck only encodes the massing consequence. Read your site's Record of Decision (ROD) and latest Five-Year Review (find them via EPA's Superfund site search / SEMS); vapour-intrusion control and any cap penetration are an engineer-and-EPA conversation, not a slider. See epa.gov/superfund/superfund-cleanup-process.
Rule: Buried fraction <= 0.05 0–1 · must pass · weight 2 Provenance: cap kept intact ≤ 0.05 — remedy protection per the site's EPA Record of Decision (epa.gov/superfund/superfund-cleanup-process). Caveat: Geometrically the same move as Ground's 'Perch' — but here it's remedy protection, not preference. Cap extent/depth is NOT modelled: read your site's ROD and Five-Year Review; this clause only encodes the massing consequence.
Touch the ground lightly
Bear on points or grade beams — drive slab-to-soil contact to zero.
Rule: Soil-contact area <= 10 m² · weighed · weight 1 Provenance: near-zero soil contact ≤ 10 m² — remedy-compatible reuse, EPA Superfund Redevelopment (epa.gov/superfund-redevelopment). Caveat: Piers and piles are NOT modelled — the plinth is monolithic, so this reads slab-to-soil area only. Whether ANY foundation may touch or pierce the cap is the ROD's call (with EPA/state sign-off), not this number's.
Keep the load on the cap light
A smaller footprint bears less on the cap and disturbs less of it while building.
Rule: Plinth footprint <= baseline ×0.85 (set the number against your design) · weighed · weight 1 Provenance: baseline ×0.85 — settlement/loading on capped ground, EPA Superfund Redevelopment (epa.gov/superfund-redevelopment). Caveat: Bearing pressure, settlement and utility penetrations are NOT modelled — footprint area is only the crudest massing proxy for cap loading.
Record the ROD constraints
Look your site up (EPA site search / Envirofacts SEMS), read the ROD, and note what the remedy permits.
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Views
Open the right wall toward the view you want — knowing glass toward the view may fight sun and wind.
Open to the view
Aim and enlarge an opening toward the target.
Rule: View toward target >= baseline ×1.3 (set the number against your design) · weighed · weight 1 Provenance: baseline ×1.3. Caveat: Aperture solid angle weighted toward the target azimuth; not a real viewshed (no obstructions).
Frame the sky
Use the roof aperture for daylight from above.
Rule: Sky view (skylight) >= baseline ×1.2 (set the number against your design) · weighed · weight 1 Provenance: baseline ×1.2. Caveat: Upward solid angle of the roof aperture; not a daylight-factor calc.
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Humidity
Humid heat asks for airflow and shade; dry heat asks for thermal mass. Humidity decides which passive move actually works — load a climate (.epw) to see the comfort fingerprint.
Open it to the breeze
Enlarge cross/stack openings — air movement is the main passive lever in muggy heat.
Rule: Ventilation provision >= baseline ×1.4 (set the number against your design) · must pass · weight 2 Provenance: baseline ×1.4. Caveat: Buoyancy + wind cross-vent airflow proxy (m³/s); air movement only cools below ~80% RH / 0.017 kg/kg.
Shade the summer sun
Cut the solar gain you'd otherwise have to ventilate or cool away.
Rule: Summer solar gain <= baseline ×0.7 (set the number against your design) · weighed · weight 1 Provenance: baseline ×0.7. Caveat: Summer beam gain on the glazing; a humid climate can't dump it to mass, so reject it at the glass.
Add mass — dry climates only
Thermal mass + night flush pays off only when the air is dry with a big day–night swing.
Rule: Thermal mass ratio >= baseline ×1.3 (set the number against your design) · weighed · weight 1 Provenance: baseline ×1.3. Caveat: Near-useless in hot-humid climates (warm nights, no night relief) — check the comfort fingerprint's label first.
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Flood / stability
not modelled
On a ravine edge, water and slope stability may be the dominant forces.
We can't model this honestly — flood, erosion and slope stability need a survey and an engineer, not a closed-form proxy. Naming it is the responsible move.
Record a hand-judgment note
State the risk and how the design answers it.
4Notes
Hand judgments the numbers can't hold — flood and stability risks, the site's Record of Decision, anything you're deciding on principle rather than by metric.
Brief keeps one draft per browser (nothing is uploaded) plus the JSON files you download. Attaching a Brief to a semester-long Work is coming with the Studio's Work object — for now, the file is the truth.