Can you start by telling us about Henderson Engineers and your roles within the company?
Sean:Henderson Engineers is a national building systems design firm that does more than just design the systems for air, water flow, lighting, and technology in buildings—we bring buildings to life by prioritizing both people and performance. It’s not just about technical systems; it’s about creating spaces that enhance experiences and help people reach their full potential.
Since 1970, our people-first culture has been a cornerstone. We are committed to delivering top-notch engineering expertise while maintaining long-lasting client relationships. Our clients benefit from both our engineering solutions as Henderson Engineers and our construction management expertise through Henderson Building Solutions—all under one roof. This integrated approach ensures that great design on paper translates into great execution in the field.
As a 100% employee-owned firm, we’re invested in building a better world. With over 1,000 employees across 13 offices, we focus on designing sustainable systems that reduce the carbon footprint of the buildings we work on. Our commitment to diversity, empathy, and inclusion is reflected in everything we do—both within our firm and in the spaces we help create. Our purpose is to help people and projects reach their full potential, which drives us forward.
Sean: As the Director of Innovation at Henderson, I lead a team focused on developing the next-generation design toolkit for our work. We research novel approaches, build proofs-of-concept, and deliver minimum viable products that position Henderson at the forefront of regenerative building systems design. We are creating a toolkit to actively combat climate change through smarter, more sustainable engineering.
Dauphin: As a Lead Computational Engineer, I integrate advanced computational methods into our engineering processes to enhance efficiency and accuracy. My role involves developing and implementing computational tools that streamline our design workflows and reduce the technological manual labor, allowing our team to focus on more complex engineering challenges. I work closely with various disciplines within the firm to ensure that these tools are practical and tailored to the specific needs of our clients. By leveraging computational thinking, we can push the boundaries of what is possible in building systems engineering, ultimately delivering more thoughtful and innovative solutions.
While architects have gradually embraced computational design for geometrically complex facades and non-standard geometries, broader engineering disciplines like MES and MEP have yet to widely adopt computational engineering processes. What motivated your team to start using this approach, and what challenges were you hoping to address?
Sean: Our goal is to build a system that actively fights climate change by optimizing our designs for factors like embodied carbon.
Traditional engineering follows a linear process, where solutions develop along a single pathway. Given the rule-based nature of building systems and the need to optimize across multiple interconnected variables, we saw that computational design was essential.
By adopting computational methods, we can explore and evaluate multiple optimized design pathways at once. Although this approach is computationally intensive, it frees our engineers to focus on selecting the best designs to meet our clients’ needs. This shift allows us to better align our processes with our sustainability goals.
Sean Turner: Innovation & Research Director
Dauphin: My motivation to adopt computational engineering processes was deeply rooted in the desire to make work more fulfilling for our designers and engineers.
By automating the repetitive and mundane tasks that consume significant time and energy, we can offload this work to computers, which are better suited for such tasks. Moreover, computational tools have unlocked our engineers’ ability to explore numerous design options in ways that traditional methods do not allow. This capability enables us to optimize designs around a range of factors tailored to each client’s unique needs. Whether it is energy efficiency or cost-effectiveness, our engineers can iterate quickly and thoroughly, ensuring that the final design is precisely aligned with our client’s goals.
These advancements will allow us to deliver more than just a set of construction drawings to our clients. We can create tools that provide advanced data visualizations and interactive deliverables, which are far more effective at conveying the nuances and complexities of a design.
Dauphin Flores: Innovation Developer
This will improve client understanding and engagement and elevate our services’ overall value, positioning us as leaders in delivering comprehensive and forward-thinking engineering solutions.
Can you discuss the software you are developing in-house and the types of data you are gathering to help your engineering team make data-informed decisions?
Sean: We’re currently modernizing our engineering calculators. We rely on hundreds of calculators for each project, often using dozens simultaneously. These tools produce data ranging from HVAC loads to equipment specifications. Centralizing this information lets us move toward predictive modeling and simulations.
In the short term, we’re focused on digitizing these tools to improve workflows and accuracy. But our bigger vision is to create a platform that leverages this data for real-time design optimization. By integrating calculation results with building information models (BIM), we enable our engineers to make informed decisions that align with both performance goals and sustainability targets.
Register to attend CDFAM in NYC, October 2-3, 2024 to connect with experts in computational design and engineering at all scales.
Developing a computational workflow often requires more initial effort and time, but once established, it can greatly accelerate performance metrics. How has your management team supported the investment in developing these computational tools and methodologies, and how have the engineers responded to using these tools?
Sean: Evolving our core business is a strategic priority supported by top leadership. To meet our goals, we had to rethink our processes and embrace new ways of working. Leadership fully supports this shift, knowing that building a more resilient, future-focused organization requires investment in computational tools and methodologies.
The engineering team is excited about the vision, but like with any innovation, there is a learning curve. These shifts can disrupt established workflows.
Our challenge has been finding the right moment and project to introduce new tools. Close collaboration and strategic planning have helped us gradually integrate these methods in ways that align with both our engineers’ needs and our business objectives.
Sean Turner: Innovation & Research Director
How has the response been from clients when you provide clear documentation of the data supporting the decisions made, and value of your engineering solutions?
Sean: Clients appreciate our ability to provide clear, data-backed support for our decisions. This transparency builds trust and shows the value of our solutions.
Moving forward, we aim to present this data more effectively with intuitive graphics and visualizations. Simplifying complex information makes it more meaningful and engaging for clients, helping them see the impact of their decisions.
If you could ask anything of the software developers and integrators attending CDFAM, what would it be?
Dauphin: I’d ask them to place a much stronger emphasis on the user experience when developing engineering tools.
Too often, the focus is on adding features and capabilities without considering how engineers will interact with the software in their day-to-day work. Engineers typically face tight deadlines and highly complex technical challenges. Cumbersome or unintuitive tools can slow them down, increase the risk of errors, and detract from the time they could be spending on actual problem-solving.
Good UX means creating seamless and natural software, reducing the cognitive load required to operate it. This translates to intuitive interfaces, workflows that align with engineers’ thinking, and features designed to enhance rather than hinder productivity.
When the UX is prioritized, the tool becomes an extension of the engineer’s capabilities, allowing them to focus on delivering quality work instead of wrestling with the software.
Finally, what do you hope people will take away from your presentation, and what do you hope to gain from the event?
Sean: I hope people realize that building systems engineering is primed for computational design. This approach can elevate the quality of decisions in fighting climate change.
We need to go beyond minimum compliance and start designing with regenerative principles in mind. Traditional rule-based methods focus on meeting requirements, but real climate action requires balancing costs, regenerative design, and project-specific variables.
Computational thinking allows us to optimize complex constraints and uncover solutions that might otherwise remain hidden. Humans, enhanced by machines, can achieve remarkable results.
Personally, I’m eager to learn how other industries are leveraging computational design and to explore how those insights might apply to what we’re building—or even reveal new opportunities we haven’t considered.
Dauphin: I hope my presentation conveys the massive potential that modern computational tools hold for engineering design. I want to emphasize that by embracing these technologies, we can not only improve the quality of our deliverables and increase profits, but also make the work more fulfilling for engineers by allowing them to focus on creative and complex problem-solving rather than repetitive tasks.
My goal is to inspire others to rethink their own processes and consider how they can integrate computational methods to enhance their work and the value they deliver to clients.
