In thinking about what metrics are most important to measure to help me recommend one building form versus another, when it comes to least cost of a building, the building gross floor area and the directness to sunlight are the most important. With higher building gross floor area comes greater building cost, and with more directness to sunlight, more solar panels and daylight savings that can be used in the internal building. Using the custom nodes provided in the modules, and alternating them to be a limit on gross area, but a maximum on sunlight potential, the Dynamo graph can be seen below. This logic can be applied to the custom mass form created in Module 5 or a pre-existing Revit mass form.
The output values for the new testing node logic can be seen below.
The metric that is most important to a client when it comes to “best alternatives” is, in my opinion, is solar directness or the building in the solar path. This is because the gross area and gross surface area of the building have the potential to be extremely high and therefore high costs. However, the building can take advantage of the amount of solar directness when it comes to other factors in the building, such as saving energy, being net-zero or net-carbon zero, etc. The two metrics however are very closely related, and have the potential to influence each other. By weighing the metrics, there is the ability to optimize the best possible design option for the building. The optimization results and the node logic can both be seen below.
The three recommended design alternatives are:
- Top Rotation: 15º, Top Height: 600 ft
- Top Rotation: 60º, Top Height: 400 ft
- Top Rotation: 30º, Top Height: 550 ft
The best case scenario selected was 15º and 600 feet because of its minimal gross floor area, while still optimizing the amount of sunlight for the building.
Using the inputs for the “best” case scenario, a panelized mass model can be created from wall surfaces and UV grids. The Rect_Panel with Resizable Opening was used and a visual feedback using color and opening size was created with the node logic. The results are seen below for the best case scenario.
