Smart processes for smart buildings: ‘sustainable processes’, ‘recyclable processes’ and ‘building seeds’ in parametric design

Abstract

The rapid evolution of digital technologies and the resulting emergence of novel design methodologies are coinciding with climate change, population growth and increased pressure on global resources. This concurrence evokes opportunities to harness the new design methods to develop smart design solutions and processes that respond effectively to sustainability requirements. Meanwhile, parametric design is emerging as an ideal design methodology to support sustainably in design, whereby the associative parameters in parametric design systems enable automation and synchronicity in generating design forms and evaluating these forms against their environmental performance. This research explores the multifaceted way in which parametric design supports sustainability, and how this can lead to a more holistic understanding of sustainability by shifting the focus from sustainable buildings to sustainable processes. In addition, the work shows how the reusability of parametric definitions in parametric design applications can enable designers to recycle the design process, where a parametric definition acts as a building seed that can be 'planted' in different projects to automatically generate different forms. This may enable practitioners from all over the world to collectively develop a 'seed library' that has the potential for architects to empower, automate and enhance the environmental values of their processes. To achieve this, the main changes and shifts in computational design are reviewed, together with the impact of parametric design and its related applications on the architectural design process. In addition, a case study is conducted to explore how parametric design can significantly accelerate processes in real practice, and how the overlooked potential of reusing parametric definitions can make distinctive results in real architectural projects. Finally, the efficiency of the seed library is discussed as opposed to the apparent issues such as validity of seeds, motivation for sharing, and copyright.

Three-Dimensional Realtime Air Quality Mapping using Astronomical algorithms on Urban Environments

“…More precisely, in parametric modelling, geometric entities are represented alongside their relationships through associated components and attributes within a hierarchical chain of dependencies, wherein each geometric attribute is expressed through a parameter (Turrin et al, 2011). The parametrisation entails determining which parameters are to be fixed, which are independent, and which are dependent (Haidar et al, 2019). The independent parameters can then be changed manually to feed data to the dependent parameters, which dynamically update in response (Barrios, 2005).…”

“…Known as 'graph-based parametric modelling applications', they rely on a simultaneous and interactive display of the model in the host application and a visual graph in the parametric modelling application (Oxman, 2017) (Figure 1). The graph contains nodes representing blocks of scripting that receive data from other nodes through input parameters and send data to other nodes through output parameters (Haidar et al, 2019). Different parameters or objects in the host application can be represented in the graph, allowing designers to develop algorithms by associating parameters, establishing relations, incorporating rules and manipulating those relations, rules and parameters while observing the results in the host applications in real-time.…”

A proposed conceptual framework for Computational Design Sustainability in Industrialized Building

“…The key argument is that computation and sustainability move each other forward by adapting methods developed to solve one problem in a discipline to tackle another problem in the same or other disciplines. An example of a CDS approach is the work of Haidar et al (2019), studying and employing parametric design in empowering sustainable processes and recycling. Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of CDS.…”

Integration of parametric modeling tools in small architectural offices – between constraints and organizational strategies

“…The practice of architecture is undergoing unprecedented change, partly due to the rapid evolution of digital technologies (Haidar et al, 2019;Kocaturk, 2019) in terms of collaboration (Fok & Picon, 2016), interdisciplinarity (Bhooshan, 2017;Lars & Benachir, 2011;Sprecher & Ahrens, 2016), or representation (Harding & Shepherd, 2017;Jabi et al, 2017) and affecting firms and projects (Azzouz & Papadonikolaki, 2020). Tools are becoming more adaptable (Burry, 2013), processes more flexible (Imbert et al, 2012;Tamke & Thomsen, 2018), and parametric modeling tools are playing a role in this evolution (Authors, 2021).…”