Step 1 - Generative Design Framework
- Design Decision 1: Dimensions of a building to maximize total value
- Design Variables
- top cross section length
- top cross section width
- height
- Evaluators
- building value
- building costs
- building disruption to the general public
- Most Important Tradeoffs to Consider
- Higher rents/value from taller building vs higher construction costs at higher building heights
- higher rents vs higher disruption to the public if the building is very tall and casts shadows/ obstructs views
- Design Decision 2: Building shape that maximizes sustainability
- Design Variables
- building length
- building width
- building volume
- Evaluators
- roof size (for PV)
- surface area (energy needs)
- cost of building
- Most Important Tradeoffs to Consider
- more solar PV vs higher roof construction costs, less surface area so lower construction costs vs heat savings from more surface area and more windows facing the sun.
- Design Decision 3: Deciding on best job to choose
- Design Variables
- position title
- industry
- location
- Evaluators
- wage
- happiness
- hours worked per week
- Most Important Tradeoffs to Consider
- getting paid more vs working more
- getting paid more vs being happier and not exhausted
Step 2 - Generative Design Study
I decided to run a Generative Design Study with my first decision: dimensions of a building to maximize total value.
My objective was to find out what building dimensions would lead to the highest rent values while also taking into account costs such as the building costs and social costs of having a large building
Model:
I chose building height, top cross section width, and top cross section height as my design variables as seen in the image below
I then created constants for the remaining parametric variables in my model. I could have used base width and length as inputs, but I was more interested in seeing changes from top level dimensions. The first two constants below represent the base length and width. The remaining values make are parameters for my evaluators.
After creating inputs and constants, I fed these variables into the dynamo graph below to create a rectangular geometry.
I then used this geometry to compute Volume and surface area in order to use this data for my evaluators.
I then calculated my evaluators
I calculated Building Value with a base value and scaled it greater as the volume of the building increased to represent higher rents for more space.
I calculated Total Costs with two parts. First, I had a base building cost that I increased as the surface area of the building increased. I set this up to accelerate as the surface area got larger and larger in order to overtake any additional value creation. The second part involved multiplying the surface area of the building by an energy cost factor in order to estimate energy costs. I added these two parts to reach total cost.
I then calculated disturbance by multiplying the height of the building by a disturbance factor. As the building got taller, more surrounding neighbors would be negatively affected by the size.
I finished by retrieving the outputs from the model
Step 3 - Generative Design Study Results
In the scatterplot I have building height on the y axis and top width on the x axis. The size of the dots is linked to the total value of the building, they get bigger as value increases. The color of the dots is linked to total cost as they get redder as total cost increases.
As you can see, total value increases as the building height and top length increase. On the other hand, total cost also increases as building height and top length increase. Additionally, total cost increase accelerates as the building dimensions increase. At first the increase in total value is larger than the increase in total cost leading to more profit. However, the increase in total cost accelerates and begins to increase faster than total value therefore decreasing total profit. The design decision would want to find the dimensions that increase total profit by finding where total value no longer increases more than total costs.
With this information I would choose a building with medium sized dimensions that allow total profit to be maximized before allowing costs to accelerate and deteriorate profit.
