BuildWise!

• BuildWise is a tool to help users select affordable apartment designs. It is an interactive tool for architects, engineers, and developers to optimize the design of an affordable apartment buildings. With BuildWise, users can rapidly explore key design choices, such as building width, building length, floor stories, and floor-to-floor height of an apartment building

Key Features:

• Easily adjust building width, building length, number of stories, and floor-to-floor height. Users can adjust with minimum and maximum values set to see a wide range of design options
• Calculates Apartment Building’s Floor Area based on number of stories and building height
• Calculate Total Energy Usage Based on Area at Each Level Annually
• Used the link below to set up inputs for EUI value for lowest and highest level. This helped compute values at each level
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772783123000109#fig0006
• Calculated the total energy usage by mass floors at the lowest level and the highest level
• Then, calculates Annual Energy Consumption (12 times monthly usage) divided by the gross floor area
• Calculate Energy Costs Annually and per kWh
• Multiplies total energy usage by average energy price of 17 cents
• Electricity Rates by State | May 2025 | Choose Energy
• Total Construction Costs
• Computes the total construction costs at each level by multiplying the massFloorArea by the ValueAtLevel
• Choosing the right Material based of user’s chosen # of floor stories
• Constructed a codeblock i <= 6 ? "Timber" : (i <= 9 ? "Mass Timber" : "Steel"); to reflect this logic:
• 2-6 stories → construct apartment building with Timber Materials
• 7-9 stories → construct apartment building with Mass Timber Materials
• 10-15 stories → construct apartment building with Steel Materials
• Constructed a codeblock material == "Steel" ? steelCarbon : (material == "Mass Timber" ? massTimberCarbon : timberCarbon)
• This codeblock will ensure that the material best suited for the apartment building embodied carbon (based on the # of floor stories the user selects) will be outputted
• Logic on selecting certain materials based on number of floors:
• Realized timber is the lowest embodied carbon each time, but to ensure that a building remains structurally sound, timber material can be used for buildings with about 6 floors for optimal carbon performance
• Mass timber with enhanced fire protection and strength is building materials suitable for apartment buildings that have 7-9 floors.
• For safety reasons, we can use steel as materials for apartment building that are above 10 stories tall.
• From the previous submission, I took out carbon as one of the materials that can be used to construct an apartment building as it will always have the highest embodied carbon and is not a desirable material to construct with.
• Calculating Material’s Embodied Carbon
• Based on the article below, used these numbers in the calculation of embodied carbon of using certain materials to construct the apartment building
• https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/67831#:~:text=In this study%2C the substitution,emissions and address GWP mitigation.
• Multiplied Steel’s Embodied Carbon (25 CO2e/sf) by total SF to get embodied carbon (CO2e)
• Timber’s Embodied Carbon (18 CO2e/sf) by total SF to get embodied carbon (CO2e)
• Mass Timber’s Embodied Carbon (15 CO2e/sf) by total SF to get embodied carbon (CO2e)
• The tool will produce outputs of total construction costs ($), material choice’s embodied carbon (CO2e), total energy usage (kWh), and energy costs ($)
• Designers in the design phase of a project will choose the solution given the user’s desired outcome using the Generative Design Study (randomize)
• Generates multiple design options using generative design methods, helping you find the best balance of cost, carbon, and energy for your affordable housing project.
• BuildWise is my tool’s catchy name to make smart decisions around the # of stories in an apartment building, material’s embodied carbon, cost, and energy usage to deliver affordable housing for their clients
• A teaser image that shows typical results:

• A link to a recorded video demo (2 minutes max) in which you demonstrate how a user would interact with and benefit from using your parametric design tool.

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yok_1vrywgJWKxEFiR410L2AvgpoTAL8/view?usp=sharing