22 Teaching an AI How to Learn About HVAC
Donna Vakalis, a postdoc researcher at Mila, Quebec AI Institute, focuses on reducing climate emissions from buildings using AI. Her work involves optimizing HVAC systems without extensive data, emplo...
10 Dec 202512min
21 Buildings are Giant Robots
A Columbia robotics researcher and a Google AI engineer join Café Zai to ask why our buildings, giant robots in disguise, are still asleep.About the Guest:Judah Goldfeder is a researcher at Columbia U...
24 Nov 202524min
20 Seven Deadly BIMs
Kimon Onuma and Cyril Verley trade confessions from decades inside the BIM and digital twin world. From hoarding data and chasing flashy visuals to selling LOD 500 models that nobody could use, they n...
11 Nov 202519min
19 Greenbuild LA 2025 Day 2 : Kimon Onuma
Join Kimon Onuma as he takes you behind the scenes of the US Green Building Council's 2025 LA Conference, where sustainability meets cutting-edge technology. In this episode, Kimon shares his insights...
6 Nov 202513min
18 Greenbuild LA 2025 Day 1 : Kimon Onuma
AI and Standards. Real-time Café Zai reflections from Day 1 at Greenbuild 2025. Kimon Onuma pushes back on the corporate sustainability script and narrative, and calls out architects for hiding behind...
5 Nov 202512min
17 It’s Alive! No More Dead Data
Reanimating buildings with living, owner-run data.Kimon Onuma and Cyril Verley crack open why “living” planning beats glossy shelfware master plans. Fresh from Tradeline, they map how to turn a static...
27 Okt 202520min
16 Capital, Energy, & Intelligence: Data-Center Reality with Amy Polvado
Data is changing real estate. Amy Polvado breaks down the density story—capital, energy, and intelligence—inside today’s data centers. We unpack why “dollars not square feet” matters, how higher rack ...
13 Okt 202526min
15 The Soul, the Silence, and the Twin with Chikara Inamura
When a building is completed, it often stops talking to us. All the knowledge, intelligence, and memory that shaped it disappear into the walls.In this Café Zai conversation, Kimon Onuma and Chikara I...
7 Okt 202525min
