Stage 1: Create Two New Evaluator Nodes
Building off of last weekâs tower, I used the same hourglass form to generate five total metrics for 12 tower options. First, I developed a series of nodes which calculated the Gross Floor Area, Gross Surface Area, and Volume, and then merged all the fields to export as a csv to my local drive. I then implemented my two primary metrics: construction cost and solar irradiance.
First, I created nodes that mapped construction costs linearly from $500/SF at grade to $1000/SF at 755â. I did this by using a Remap Number component which translated floor elevations (Z) into specific unit costs. I then set a Source Domain to [0, 755] and Target Domain to [500, 1000]. These results were multiplied by their corresponding floor area and aggregated via Mass Addition.
Second, I used Ladybug to measure annual solar radiation. I sourced a Dubai EPW files from ladybug tools and used the Import EW node to channel weather data into a Cumulative Sky Matrix. The technical integration on macOS was the most significant challenge. The Sky Matrix initially failed because Ladybug couldnât located the Radiance rayinit.cal dependency. I resolved this by hard-coding the bin and lib paths into the Python environment variables. Furthermore, a âlibrary identity crisisâ caused components to reject valid data collecitons due to conflicting library paths. I fixed this by implementing a global path-setter script that synchronized the sys.path across the entire document. Finally, I optimized the grid size to 3.0 to ensure calculations remained under 20 seconds.
Stage 2: 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 âbestâ.
- An explanation of why you consider the recommended building form to be the âbestâ choice