(The figure above shows the optimized dimension and orientation of the building towards the lake)
This study is constructed based on a campus building project at University of Wisconsin Madison. The building consists of 3 levels with a maximum design floor area of 30,000 sf. Lake Mandota is located on the North of the project site, and the owners want more openings with view to the lake. This study creates an optimization problem to evaluate different design dimension and orientation of each floor for maximizing the view to lake and solar insolation with a minimum floor area.
Step 1 - Generative Design Framework
A very brief description of the design decisions from Step 1 following the Generative Design Framework.
- Design Decision 1: Total Floor Area
- Design Variables
- Level 1-3 length and width
- Evaluators
- Total floor area
- Most Important Tradeoffs to Consider
- Increase floor area will increase the cost of construction and energy consumption for the whole building, but increasing envelop can increase solar insolation and view to the lake to different extend.
- Design Decision 2: Solar Insolation
- Design Variables
- Level 1-3 length and width
- Level 1-3 rotation
- Evaluators
- Total solar insolation
- Floor area/insolation
- Most Important Tradeoffs to Consider
- Minimize floor area and maximize solar insolation: increasing the dimension of the building can increase solar insolation, but also lead to increase floor area and construction cost. Thus, an optimize length and width of each floor should be found.
- maximize solar insolation while maximize view to the lake: solar insolation level is higher on the south of the building, but the lake is located on the North of the building. Thus an optimize orientation of the building can be found.
- Design Decision 3: View to Lake Mandota
- Design Variables
- Level 1-3 length and width
- Level 1-3 rotation
- Evaluators
- Total view to the lake
- Floor area/view to lake
- Most Important Tradeoffs to Consider
- Minimize floor area while maximize solar insolation: increasing the dimension of the building facing the lake can improve the view, but also lead to increase floor area and construction cost. Thus, an optimize length and width of each floor should be found.
Step 2 - Generative Design Study
- A more detailed description for setting up the study.
In this study, 3 floor levels with a rectangular shape cube are stacked together, each of them are allowed to have different dimensions and rotation. The width and length are set to range from 70 to 100 sf, thus a maximum total floor area is 30,000sf. The height of each floor is the same, ranging from 13 to 15 ft. The rotation of each floor can range from 0 to 360 degrees. A 5000 x 2000 sf rectangular flat cube was created to represent the lake Mandota. The project location is set to be wisconsin madison with a latitude of 43.07 and a longtitude of 89.40. An annual solar analysis is conducted from Jan. 1st 9am to Dec. 31 5pm.
- Use the Generative Design Framework structure to explain how you’ve set up your Generative Design Study to keep it consistent.
To set up the generative design framework, 10 building parameter inputs are created to represent to length, width, and rotation, as well as the floor height for 3 levels. Then the cubical building shape was created mainly using the nodes of Cuboid.ByLengths and Geometry.Rotate. Then the building surfaces are seperate and sumed for different uses using Geometry.Explode and BuildingForm.SelectWall/Roof/GroundSurfaces. Then 3 analysis was conducted: total floor area, total solar insolation, and total directness to lake. 2 relative evaluation nodes area also created: floor area/solar insolation and floor area/view to lake. This five analysis matrix is then set as the output for this model. To evaluate the directness to lake, a custome node was made to panelize the building wall and lake surfaces.
Step 3 - Generative Design Study Results
- The screenshot of the Scatterplot or Parallel Coordinates Graph illustrating the tradeoff that you chose to model and study. Provide a brief explanation of what’s being shown in the Scatterplot or Parallel Coordinates Graph and how the tradeoff being illustrated would impact the design decision. What would you do with this info?
The plots above shows the optimized solution chosen given the trade offs among solar insolation, view to the lake, and total floor area. It can be seen from the Parallel Coordinates Graph that solar insolation and view to the lake are two major trade-off as expected. Because solar will be maximize when South-facing areas are larger, while view to the lake will be improved for more North-facing openings. Thus, in this study, a scenario of moderate solar insolation and view to the lake, with the least floor area option is chosen. The 3D model of the this design in shown in the beginning of this report. The higher the floor level, the more rotation is selected. This may due to that having more rotation allows more view to the lake. This rotation also reduce direct North-facing facade, thus increase the solar insolation.
- An image of your Dynamo Study Graph (showing all your nodes and the connecting logic) -- You can use the File > Export Workspace As Image... command in Dynamo to save a PNG image to upload with your posting.
