The Design Decision I Studies
Please enter a very brief description of the design decision you studied (two to three sentences max).
The design decision I chose to study deals with the structural aspects of the building. I chose to vary (1) building material weight, (2) total building height, and (3) the mid-height area of the building, and the outputs I studied were (1) total weight, (2) approximate roof drift, and (3) an evaluator of the distribution of weight through the height of the building. I then used Generative Design to study tradeoffs between these three outputs.
Image of Your Dynamo Study Graph
Image of Your Outcomes / Results
I chose to use the randomize method in Generative Design with 100 different cases. This scatterplot primarily represents the tradeoff of structural weight against an estimate of the roof drift. The idea is that one would want to minimize both weight and drift, but the two are inversely related since an increase in mass will increase lateral stiffness and thus decrease drift. The colors in the scatterplot represent the weight distribution evaluator which is a metric of how the floor masses are distributed up the height of the building. A higher weight distribution evaluator would indicate more mass at the top of the structure which is not as good for structural stability purposes. When looking for an “optimal” building, one would want to choose a design in the bottom left corner with ideally a red or orange color (low weight distribution evaluator) and a larger circle to indicate a taller structure.
This is the building form that would minimize total weight and roof drift, while also providing a good evaluator of building weight distribution. One drawback is that it is one of the smaller structures in terms of building height.
The next two images show two "optimal" designs for a concave and convex building form that do a good job of minimizing total weight and drift.
