Original Idea:
Step 1 - Generative Design Framework
I’m studying structural engineering, so I thought of design decisions that go along with completing a construction project.
- Structural Design
- Design Variables
- Loading
- Spacing of columns and beams (bay size)
- Type of material and connections
- Weight/cost of material
- Material strength and toughness
- Exposure
- Evaluators
- Service life
- Cost
- Material availability
- Congruency with the architect’s design
- Sustainability
- Most Important Tradeoffs to Consider
- Strength vs. Cost
- Service Life vs. Sustainability vs. Cost
- Material Availability vs. Strength
- Architectural Design
- Design Variables
- Comfortability
- Aesthetics
- How well does it fit in with the surrounding environment
- Material/Color
- Evaluators
- Airflow
- Natural light
- Visual opinion by committee
- Efficient use of square footage
- Most Important Tradeoffs to Consider
- Natural light vs. Cost
- Aesthetics vs. comfortability vs. cost
- “Fashion vs. function”
- Construction Decisions
- Design Variables
- Scheduling
- Trade availability/skill level
- Safety
- Material cost and delivery
- Staging area location and size
- Parking
- Noise levels
- Evaluators
- There’s reasonable transportation to and from the site for workers
- Time to completion for tasks (on-time, behind, or ahead)
- Number of change orders/cost of mistakes
- Most Important Tradeoffs to Consider
- Quality vs. Cost
- Time vs. Cost
- Amount of excess material ordered vs. Cost (risk management)
Step 2 - Generative Design Study
I decided to create the study using the architecture design decision of maximizing natural light. This also needs to be weighed against the cost of construction and the solar potential of the roof. If the building has solar panels, but not a lot of natural light, more energy will be used to light the building and it becomes less efficient. If it has a lot of natural light, but the solar panels are ineffective, then it’s a bad use of money.
- Objective: What is the ideal angle the roof and rotation of the building to maximize natural light and solar potential, while minimizing cost?
- Model: To build this model, I’ll first create a simple box with no top. Then, I’ll create the roof element by defining a plane at the user specified angle. Once all of the surfaces are created, the user will be able to apply a rotation to the entire building. The floor surface will then undergo a solar analysis to check the amount of natural light, with the roof and walls as shading. The roof will then undergo a solar analysis to find solar panel potential. Finally, the square footage of “window” area will be computed to calculate cost of construction.
- Design Variables: Roof angle and building rotation.
- Constants: Building width and length
- Evaluators: Natural light on the building floor, solar potential on the roof, and cost of windows.
- Interpretation: Before seeing the results, I can imagine a flat roof will not work, as no natural light will enter the building. I can also imagine that a roof angled at >45 will offer a lot of natural light, but will be too expensive and be an inefficient use of solar panels. The window on the long side of the building will most likely need to point either east or west.
Step 3 - Generative Design Study Results
Inputs, Outputs, and Goals:
Scatterplot and Parallel Coordinates Graph:
In the above scatterplot, I was excited to see that the amount of natural light in the building was not perfectly linearly correlated with the cost of the windows. A plot like this for example, could help the designer choose the cheapest option between multiple designs with similar amounts of natural light. These designs could then be compared against each other in terms of solar energy potential to find the optimized design.
Image of Study Graph: