David Jason Gerber

Designing in complexity: Simulation, integration, and multidisciplinary design optimization for architecture

While the overall performance of buildings has been established to be heavily impacted by design decisions made during the early stages of the design process, design professionals are typically unable to explore design alternatives, or their impact on energy profiles, in a sufficient manner during this phase. The research presents a new design simulation methodology based on incorporating a prototype tool (H.D.S. Beagle) that combines parametric modeling with multi-objective optimization through an integrated platform for enabling rapid iteration and trade-off analysis across the domains of design, energy use intensity, and finance. The research evaluates how the proposed method impacts design simulation processes, by either enabling and/or disrupting the early stages of design decision making. This simulation technology is presented through two major experiment sets: (1) a series of hypothetical cases emulating the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) design modeling and simulation process using our integrated simulation framework and technology; and (2) a pedagogically based experiment used for establishing benchmarks. Through these experiment data sets, both quantitative and qualitative data are collected, including human designer and computational analysis speeds, quantity of generated design alternatives, and quality of resulting solution space as defined by the evaluation metric of this research. The affordances for incorporation of real world design complexity into our computational design prototype and simulation methodology are discussed through both the enabling and the disruptive impact on the early stages of the design process.

Teaching Design Optioneering: A Method for Multidisciplinary Design Optimization

This paper describes a Design Optioneering methodology that is intended to offer multidisciplinary design teams the potential to systematically explore a large number of design options much more rapidly than currently possible using conventional methods. Design Optioneering involves first defining a range of design options using associative parametric design tools; then coupling this model with integrated simulation-based analysis; and, finally, using computational design optimization methods to systematically search though the defined range of alternatives in search of design options that best achieve the problem objectives while satisfying any constraints. The Design Optioneering method was tested by students as part of a parametric design course at Stanford University in the spring of 2010. The performance of the method are discussed in terms of the student’s ability to capture the design intent using parametric modeling, integrate expert analysis domains, and select a preferred option among a large number of alternatives. Finally, the potential of Design Optioneering to reduce latency, further domain integration, and enable the evaluation of more design alternatives in practice is discussed.

Multi-agent team formation for design problems

Design imposes a novel social choice problem: using a team of voting agents, maximize the number of optimal solutions; allowing a user to then take an aesthetical choice. In an open system of design agents, team formation is fundamental. We present the first model of agent teams for design. For maximum applicability, we envision agents that are queried for a single opinion, and multiple solutions are obtained by multiple iterations. We show that diverse teams composed of agents with different preferences maximize the number of optimal solutions, while uniform teams composed of multiple copies of the best agent are in general suboptimal. Our experiments study the model in bounded time; and we also study a real system, where agents vote to design buildings.

Surveying the Evolution of Computing in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Education

This paper includes the results of an online survey that was conducted by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) task committee on computing education to assess the evolution of computing in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) education in 2012. The committee aims to understand and measure the evolution of computing in civil engineering, architecture, and construction management curricula and evaluate the current state of computing within the AEC curricula. The paper contains an investigation of the levels and concentrations of computer-science knowledge versus computer skills in curricula. In addition, the committee seeks to recognize the similarities and differences between architecture, engineering, and construction management programs by comparing the data associated with these disciplines. The paper also includes a discussion of basic aspects of computing education including the prerequisites that are necessary for further learning. The survey results provide useful benchmarks for decision making regarding research, industry collaboration, and curricula. Findings of the study include: (1) the importance and coverage of computer skills and competence of graduates has increased over the past decade; (2) computing skills are judged to be more important than computer-science knowledge in AEC curricula; (3) the links between computer-science concepts and AEC applications of computing are not yet fully recognized; (4) computing education is not sufficient to meet the demands of the AEC industry and the share of computing courses is less than what educators desire; and (5) scientific concepts of computing are important for preparing architects and engineers for unknown future developments in information technology

Towards Understanding End-user Lighting Preferences in Office Spaces by Using Immersive Virtual Environments

Buildings and their systems are primarily designed based on several assumptions about end-users’ requirements and needs, which in many cases are incomplete and result in inefficiencies during operation phases of buildings. With advancements in fields of augmented and virtual reality, designers and engineers have now the opportunity to collect information about end-users’ requirements, preferences, and behaviors for more informed decision-making during the design phase. These approaches allow for buildings to be designed around the users, with the goal that the design will result in reduction of energy consumption and improved building operations. The authors examine the effect of design features on occupants’ preferences and performance within immersive virtual environments (IVEs). Specifically, this paper presents an approach to understand end-users’ lighting preferences and collect end-user performance data through the use of IVEs.

Use of Immersive Virtual Environments to Understand Human-Building Interactions and Improve Building Design

Previous research has shown occupants’ behavior and interactions with building systems and components have a significant impact on the total energy consumption of buildings. Incorporating occupant requirements to the design process could result in better operations, and therefore, improve the total energy consumption of buildings. Currently, buildings are primarily designed based on several common assumptions about occupant requirements, which in many cases are incorrect and result in inefficiencies during the buildings’ operation phase. With the recent improvements in the fields of virtual and augmented reality, designers now have the opportunity to accurately collect and analyze occupants’ behavioral information. In this research, through the use of immersive virtual environments, the influence of different design features on end-user behavior (preferences and patterns) and performances are examined. A case study is presented, in which the authors measure the end-users’ lighting preferences to better understand the impact of preferences on end-users’ performances and lighting-related energy consumption.

Towards Measuring the Impact of Personal Control on Energy Use through the Use of Immersive Virtual Environments

Recent studies have focused on increasing energy efficiency in commercial buildings through technological means (e.g., efficient HVAC systems, sensors and sensing systems). However, most studies underestimate the impact of occupants’ behavioural choices. Lighting systems account for approximately a fifth of the total electricity consumption in the US; commercial buildings account for 71 percent of such consumption. This paper focuses on human behaviour related energy consumption by investigating the impact of personal control on lighting use in office environments. To effectively examine human energy consumption behaviour, alternative 3D design models of an office are created using an immersive virtual environment to visualize different lighting control features. Participants are brought into these immersive virtual environments by wearing Head-Mounted Displays and are asked to interact within these environments and perform a defined task. Participants were then allowed to control and change the room’s lighting settings based on their preferences in order to perform their assigned task. Unique to our experimental design is the use of immersive virtual environments, enabling measurement and control of a series of design feature isolations and combinations. The work presents the impact of decisions made both during design and operation of buildings on occupants’ energy related behaviour. The experiment demonstrated that when

PARA-Typing Informing Form and the Making of Difference

This paper presents design research and instruction into the use of constraint based digital and analogue modelling techniques and the development of associative parametric models to simulate highly differentiated fabricated form. One set of these design research projects were conceived as manual analogue generative processes for prototyping modularity and serial differentiation. Then through parametric design techniques, modular aggregations were design explored and developed in concert with material properties and constraints. Utilizing digital fabrication full-scale installations were designed, manufactured, and for site-specific configurations. A second set of projects provides an extension of the design instruction that includes the integration of performance criteria into these design objectives. The objectives of the research are to present benefits and limitations of the incorporation of parametric design, performance analysis, and prototyping techniques in comprehensive studio instruction. The paper discusses the resultant informed materialized difference and the impacts on achieving reinforced and hands on learning objectives.

Special issue on simulation related to design

This special issue presents a broad spectrum of research and practice in the theorization, development, application, and continual validation of the importance of simulation for the design endeavor. Three of the four papers in the issue are expansions of the some of the highest quality submissions showcased at the 2014 Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design (SimAUD), an international event that continues to present the avant-garde in design computation research. All four papers are exceptional examples of the scales, purposes, and reach of simulation within the fields of architecture, urban design, and engineering. At the core of our shared interests is to improve the product and process of design. Here design has a particular focus on architecture, but intrinsic in this research inquiry are aspects of human behavior, fabrication, performance criteria, and even social simulations to aid in the evercomplex and highly coupled design challenges we all face. Modeling and simulation is in all cases seen as a means to enhance the way a project is developed as well as the final outcome of the design process. The selected works here present a broad spectrum of scale of artifact, product, or projects undertaken; accordingly, we see a broad spectrum of granularity in what is being modeled and simulated. From the fabrication level of detail to that of tall buildings and crowds is one way to describe the range of scales covered. In all cases, the research and projects present improvements to the process in which design solutions are modeled, simulated, and manifest, but they also present novel performance in the resulting built environments. Here SimAUD is unique in that the research not only addresses the advancement of simulation in theoretical arenas, but in built form as well. The papers included in this special issue are as follows. The work from Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), and in particular work by ZHA Code’s Shajay Bhooshan and his co-authors, demonstrates the integration of scientific methods and computational simulation to ensure the constructability of highly complex materially form-found structures. The work is presented through a small scale and scope project, but is equally far reaching in terms of the impact of the demonstrated methodology for advanced modeling, simulation through to fabrication, and tectonic tolerance management. From the University of Toronto, Brady Peters observes that traditional design methods are visual in nature, whereas ‘‘the digital design environment can have an aural component.’’ The workflows demonstrated in the paper incorporate acoustic computer simulation to help architects design for sound. Two scales are explicitly considered in this work: that of a free-standing meeting room called the FabPod, and that of its surrounding open-plan working environment. Simulations proven useful at a small scale can be difficult to apply at larger scales on account of a number of factors, notably computational limitations. Samuel Wilkinson and his co-authors from University College London explore the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for tall building design. Artificial neural networks are employed to trade accuracy for time. Their paper provides a description of the method and a detailed analysis of the associated time–accuracy tradeoffs. The last paper, from Stanford University, describes a building egress simulation tool called SAFEgress. The presented software is exceptional in two regards. First, it addresses and consolidates a broad range of factors influencing crowd behavior that have previously been studied apart from one another. Second, Mei Ling (Zan) Chu and her co-authors emphasize the important influence of social characteristics in emergency situations, and their work spans the scales associated with three levels of social behavior: individual, group, and crowd. We sincerely thank the authors for this diverse set of leading-edge contributions to design research and practice, as well as the reviewers and the SIMULATION editors who helped the authors produce self-complete and

A Pedagogical Benchmark Experiment for the Application of Multidisciplinary Design Optimization in Early Stage Building Design

This research is built upon a previously established early stage multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) framework, entitled Evolutionary Energy Performance Feedback for Design (EEPFD), and proceeds with observing the impact of EEPFD on the early stages of design by conducting a pedagogical benchmark experiment. This experiment has two main observational interests. The first objective is to observe discrepancies between the human versus automated decision making processes and the resulting performance of the solution space from each process. The second objective is to understand students’ ability to translate their design intent into a parametric model, as this is a crucial component in the implementation of EEPFD. By comparing EEPFD and the benchmark pedagogical process, this paper provides an initial assessment of the potential of EEPFD to reduce latency in decision making and to find superior performing design solutions compared to the benchmark process. At the completion of this experiment it was observed that EEPFD was able to deliver superior performing design solution spaces, but that students encountered difficulties in the translation of their design intent into a functioning parametric model. INTRODUCTION + RESEARCH OBJECTIVE Buildings consume nearly half (49%) of all energy used by the United States. Building Operations alone account for 43.5% of U.S. energy consumed today while construction and building materials account for an additional 5.5% (Architecture 203