Design Decisions Considered:
- Material Cost
- Operating Performance
- Solar Performance
I chose these three considerations because together they create a cost effective, sustainably operated and environmentally conscious building. Operating performance considers impacts of the building over its lifetime, which is very important. Solar performance is important for the lifetime of the building and it carbon footprint and environmental impacts. If solar is incorporated smartly, the carbon impacts will be greatly reduced, and clean energy usage will improve overall environmental impacts. The material costs variable will keep the others in check, as the goal is to minimize cost while maximizing both operating and solar performance.
Dynamo Logic
I used the Construction Materials vs. Operating Performance Example as a base for my analysis.
- I changed the number of sides for the base shape to 5
- I added a third input variable that could be adjusted (Building Volume)
In Dynamo, the variables were set up as:
- Inputs: Building Height, Building Width, Building Volume
- Outputs: Material Cost, Energy Cost, Solar Value
With this organization, solar value should be maximized while material and energy costs are minimized.
Dynamo Script
Scatterplot Results
The plot shows that as both material and energy costs increase, solar value also tends to increase. The placement of the points represents the relationship of solar value to energy cost (representing the repetitive and lifetime related costs), while the size of the point represents the initial material cost.
To best make a decision, total budget can first be determined to exclude options that will be unavailable due to material costs and therefore in correspondence initial construction cost constraints. After those alternatives are eliminated, tradeoffs can be seen with the comparison of solar value to energy costs. In some cases, the solar value increased while the energy cost drops, and those would be the best cases that should be considered. Shown below is the final suggested building form based on analysis.
Suggested Alternatives
Option 1:
- Not desirable based on form—would likely have shading issues and other problems
Option 2: Final Suggested Alternative
- This alternative has the best relationship in terms of maximizing solar value while minimizing energy and material construction costs.
