I will be providing a Generative Design Tool that will optimize material selections for a given building envelope.
To design an Exterior Wall Section, architects and engineers often make a selection of layers from a standard set of materials (for example, cladding, DensGlass, insulation, studs at 16” or 24” O.C., drywall). In most cases, the main criteria is the R-value and all possible material combinations are not explored.
However, with a generative design, one can exhaustively try all possible combinations and see what works best given a set of results
The results should produce a list of materials in a particular order (outside to inside) with given thicknesses. These components put together will output certain criteria like cost, R-value and carbon emissions that will give the user an idea of what is best for the system.
Intended users
Architects
Building Envelope Engineers
Need you’re trying to provide a solution or support for
Giving Architects and Engineers the ability to suggest building envelope materials in the Concept Design phase of a project.
Inputs
Thickness of Wall Section
Material Input from Revit about each of the components:
- Exterior Cladding (EIFS, Metal/Wood Panels, Brick, Stone Veneer etc.)
- Batt Insulation on Exterior
- Metal or Wood Studs with Insulation Infill
- Oriented Strand Board/Drywall
Underlying logic of the model you’ll implement
There will be 4 inputs of various increments of thicknesses for 4 items: Cladding, Insulation, Metal Studs, Drywall.
Then, we will be able to select a model element that has a core structure with 4 layers of the given materials.
The inputs will feed into a node that is able to adjust the thickness of each core structure layer.
The results will produce a metric for all the outputs shown below. The designer can then filter the outputs as necessary to chose the best design.
Outputs
Total Thickness of Wall
R-value of Wall Section
Cost pet SF of Wall Section
Equivalent Carbon Emissions (lb CO2) per SF of Wall Section