Stage 1: Creating Forms with Conceptual Masses

Part 1: Template Testing

For the first part of this stage, I used a template conceptual mass and assigned levels according to the maximum height specified in the design brief. I edited the custom Dynamo node to output Gross Volume as an additional report metric and added code to format Excel outputs with corresponding input names and values.

Testing heights ranging from 200' to 500' yielded the following results:

After analyzing the Excel results, none of the tested template forms met the minimum gross floor area requirement of 2.5M sf. The tallest test at 500' reached only 220,368.77 sf, still far below the requirement. The data shows a linear progression where both gross floor area and surface area increase proportionally with height.

Part 2: Custom Form Development

Building upon these findings, I created a custom form based on the 3-point chevron template. I replaced the base and top geometries with rounded triangular profiles while using a simple triangle profile for the middle geometry. This required experimentation with different rotation angles and radii to maximize floor area to achieve the 2.5-3M sf requirement that wasn't met in the initial template testing.

Based on the linear progression observed in the initial tests, I determined that to reach the minimum 2.5M sf requirement, a significantly taller structure would be needed. Through iterative testing with my custom twisting triangular tower form, I was able to achieve the required floor area range

Results Analysis

My Excel analysis indicates that the ideal height for this twisting rounded triangular tower would be between 620'-720'. To minimize gross surface area while still meeting the minimum area requirements, maintaining a height of 620-650' would be most ideal, which would also minimize gross volume.

For comparison purposes, I also tested heights of 500' and 300' with my custom form, confirming that while these lower heights produced more efficient surface-to-floor area ratios, they failed to meet the minimum 2.5M sf requirement. The extrapolation from my initial testing data suggests that my custom form achieves approximately 11.3x more floor area than the template form at comparable heights.

Conclusion

The custom twisting rounded triangular tower form at 620-650' height represents the most efficient design solution, meeting the 2.5-3M sf gross floor area requirement while minimizing material usage through optimized surface area and volume metrics. Initial testing with heights from 200' to 500' demonstrated that standard template forms would not meet the area requirements even at the maximum tested height, necessitating both the custom form development and increased height ranges to achieve project goals.