Journal Entry For
Module 6 - Evaluate Your Alternatives
Link to Student
STAGE 1 - Create Two New Evaluator Nodes
Note that because my geometry is in Dynamo (not using a Revit mass), my new custom nodes are inside of the custom node where I build out my geometry. See comparison between that node for Module 5 vs Module 6.
Evaluation parameters and their dependencies:
- Cost of construction
- Floor mass sqft
- Height above ground level (price linearly increases by height according to project brief)
- Cost of maintenance (I want to build out adding the time value, so calculating present value if maintenance is 20yrs later vs 50 yrs later, but that will come later)
- Floor mass sqft
- Assuming constant maintenance cost (to potentially be varied by time dependency later, but for now assuming it is already calculated to take that into account)
- Carbon cost (quantifying how much it costs developers beyond traditional pricing, so taking into account the carbon impacts of a specific building form and material selection)
- Carbon cost per kg CO2eq in USD: I decided to use Uruguay’s carbon tax because 1) Dubai is still exploring the implementation of carbon tax and 2) it had the highest carbon tax rate worldwide as of April 2024, at $167 per metric ton of CO2 equivalent
- Material quantity (either per windows for wall surface panels or per floor plate sqft for mass floor)
- Directness value
- Had issues debugging the directness, so instead focused more on the cost side of things. The direction I was going for the directness value is the developer’s ability to charge more for certain spaces in the tower if the view to a certain landmark was particularly nice. Thus their rentable space revenue would be a gradient, earning more than if they assumed a constant revenue rate. Would like to build this out too to optimize for profit, rather than currently optimizing for cost.
custom node 1:
custom node 2:
custom node 3:
STAGE 2 - Develop a Single-Objective Optimization Scheme
Umbrella parameter | Parameter | Goal | Weight (1 is less important - 5 is most important) |
Total cost | Cost of construction | Minimize: want to make profit but not to where building safety and quality is sacrificed | 4 |
Cost of maintenance | Minimize: want to make profit but not to where building safety and quality is sacrificed | 4 | |
Carbon cost | Minimize: want to be smart about material choice and building form | 3 | |
Building specs | Gross volume | Maximize within bounds: want larger floor to ceiling height but not to where building costs too much and lesser number of floors | 1 |
Gross surface area | Maximize within bounds: want more windows but not to where building is very energy inefficient | 2 | |
Gross floor area | Maximize within site bounds: want more rentable space to increase rent | 2 | |
Efficiency ratio (gross surface area/gross floor area) | Maximize: want more windows and less landlocked interior space (views!!) | 5 |
With the above weighting in a custom node (M6Update.ComputeCombinedEvaluationScore), the highest scoring were highlighted in green:
STAGE 3 - Visualize the Recommended Alternative
Then, share your Design Journal entry here (replacing these instructions) ... Click the text area below the headers and just start typing your response. There's no need to add new properties.
- For 2 or More Units: Create Two New Evaluator Nodes
- Images showing the node logic in your new evaluator nodes
- An Image/screenshot of your summary table (created in Word, Excel, Google Sheets, or any data table tool) showing the input values tested and the values computed for each of the reported parameters
- For 3 or More Units: Develop a Single-Objective Optimization Scheme
- Brief descriptions outlining:
- Your Single-Objective Optimization scheme (combination/comparison/ranking approach)
- An Image/screenshot of your summary table (created in Word, Excel, Google Sheets, or any data table tool) showing the input values tested and the values computed for each of the reported parameters.
- Be sure to highlight your top 3 recommended design alternatives (for either one the example building forms or the new building form that you designed) and recommend the one design that you consider to be the “best”.
- An explanation of why you consider the recommended building form to be the “best” choice
- For 4 Units: Visualize the Recommended Alternative
- Images/screenshots showing the recommended building form based on your evaluation and analysis.
- If created in Revit or Grasshopper, show the panelized building form with visual feedback showing how your panels reflect one of the evaluations computed for the panels.
- If created in Autodesk Forma, share images/screenshots showing the results of the Daylight, Wind, and Solar Energy analysis.
- Your answers to the Points to Ponder questions for each stage of the assignment that you completed.