All SimAUD 2014 talks will take place on April 14-16 (Monday-Wednesday). These will include keynote presentations by Yehuda Kalay (Technion, Israel Institute of Technology) and Jenny Sabin (Cornell University).
For those interested, SpringSim is hosting a modeling and simulation tutorial session on Sunday, April 13. For more information, visit the SpringSim 2014 website and scroll down to Tutorial Schedule.
View a printable version of the SimAUD 2014 program below.
Yehuda Kalay – Technion, Israel Institute of Technology
Yehuda Kalay has been serving as the elected dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, since October 2010. Prof. Kalay also holds an appointment as Professor in the Graduate School, at the University of California, Berkeley, where for 18 years he served as Professor of Architecture prior to assuming his current position at the Technion.
Professor Kalay holds a B.Arch (professional) and M.Sc (research) degrees in Architecture from the Technion (Israel), and Ph.D in Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, USA). He is a licensed architect in the State of Israel. Prof. Kalay is a founding member and past president of ACADIA (Association for Computer Aided Design In Architecture), and former co-Editor-in-Chief of Automation in Construction, an international refereed journal (Elsevier, UK).
Kalay’s research explores the implications and applications of digital technologies to architectural design. Specifically, his research explores the mutual interactions between space, the people who inhabit it, and the activities they engage in, for the purpose of improving that interaction through the use of digital media at all phases of the building’s lifecycle (design, construction, and use).
Professor Kalay has published more than 120 scholarly papers (over 70% of them peer-reviewed) and nine books, the most recent of which are: Collaborative Working Environments for Architectural Design (Palombi, 2009), with Prof. Carrara of the University of Rome, Italy; New Heritage: Cultural Heritage and New Media (Routledge, 2008), with Prof. Kvan of the University of Melbourne, Australia; and Architecture’s New Media (MIT, 2004).
Elastic Matters: The Role of Simulation and Visualization in Trans-disciplinary Research
Jenny Sabin – Cornell University
Jenny E. Sabin’s work and research is at the forefront of a new direction for 21st-century architectural practice---one that investigates the intersections of architecture and science, and applies insights and theories from biology and mathematics to the design of material structures. Sabin is Assistant Professor in the area of Design and Emerging Technologies in Architecture at Cornell University. She is Principal of Jenny Sabin Studio, an experimental architectural design studio based in Philadelphia USA and director of the Sabin Design Lab at Cornell AAP, a hybrid research and design unit with specialization in computational design, data visualization and digital fabrication. Jenny holds degrees in Ceramics and Interdisciplinary Visual Art from the University of Washington and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania where she was awarded the AIA Henry Adams first prize medal and the Arthur Spayd Brooke gold medal for distinguished work in architectural design, 2005.
Sabin was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts 2010 and was recently named a USA Knight Fellow in Architecture, 1 of 50 artists and designers awarded nationally by US Artists. She has exhibited nationally and internationally most recently at Nike Stadium NYC, the American Philosophical Society Museum and at Ars Electronic, Linz, Austria. Her work is currently exhibited in the internationally acclaimed 9th ArchiLab titled Naturalizing Architecture at FRAC Centre, Orleans, France. Her work has been published extensively including in The Architectural Review, A+U, Mark Magazine, 306090, 10+1, ACM, American Journal of Pathology, Science, the New York Times, Wired Magazine and various exhibition catalogues and reviews. She co-authored Meander, Variegating Architecture with Ferda Kolatan.
Maryam M. Maleki, Robert Woodbury, Rhys Goldstein, Simon Breslav and Azam Khan
Maryam holds a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from Simon Fraser University and a M.Sc. in Architecture from Shahid Beheshti University. She is a user experience researcher interested in the application of HCI research in the computational design domain, especially in architecture and engineering. Her Ph.D. research on end-user programming in computer-aided design systems was awarded a three-year NSERC postgraduate scholarship by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. She is currently collaborating with Autodesk Research on designing visual interfaces for the Discrete EVent System specification (DEVS) formalism.
Prototyping Interactive Nonlinear Nano-to-Micro Scaled Material Properties and Effects at the Human Scale
Jenny Sabin, Andrew Lucia, Giffen Ott and Simin Wang
The goal of the eSkin project is to explore materiality from nano to macroscales based upon an understanding of the dynamics of human cell behaviors. Immediately at hand, is the necessity to understand, speculate, test and simulate which nonlinear nano-to-micro scaled material properties are possible at the architectural scale. The synergistic, bottom-up approach across diverse disciplines, including cell-matrix biology, materials science & engineering, electrical & systems engineering, and architecture brings about a new paradigm to construct intelligent and sustainable building skins that engage users at an aesthetic level. In this paper, we present two human scale prototypes combining real-time presence detection with specialized display technology and interactive computer simulation. The prototypes probe the possible features and effects of eSkin at the scale of a building facade unit.
Much of the research into integrating performance analysis in the design process has focused on the use of building information models (BIM) as input for analysis engines. The main disadvantage of this approach is that BIM models are resource intensive and thus are usually developed in the later stages of design. BIM models are also not necessarily compatible with energy analysis engines and thus a conversion and export process is needed. This can lead to data loss, calculation errors, and failures.
Starting with the premise that energy analysis is more compatible with earlier design stages where simpler schematic models are the norm, this paper presents a software system that integrates non-manifold spatial topology, a parametric design environment and an energy analysis engine for a more seamless generate-test cycle in the early design stages. The paper includes a description of the system architecture, initial results, and an outline of future work.
Simulation Supported Precedent Analysis: Disclosing the Sustainable Attributes of Vernacular Structures in the Southern U.S.
Environmental case study analysis has long served the design profession in describing complex building behavior, putting architectural design strategies to task in order to offset the need for supplemental high-grade energy systems. Knowledge of these strategies becomes crucial for designers practicing in the Southern United States, a region that demands effective low-cost strategies that perform well within a fully humid climate marked by distinct variations. However, traditional case study methods rely heavily upon methods of approximation, basing results on commonly held assumptions with little regard for the particular characteristics of place, people, and purpose that animate building performance. Rather than relying upon rule-of-thumb conjecture, low-resolution simulation platforms offer a highly interactive and diverse toolset to designers, facilitating testing sequences which acutely disclose how a range of geometric building configurations intensively shape the behavior of light, heat, and airflow present within the extensive environment. This paper explores the role of building simulation tools in the analysis of Southern vernacular structures, with emphasis on the tool's capacity to support heuristic procedures. Through multi-domain functionality, these tools enable iterative analysis across numerous time frames, producing and advancing crucial knowledge about the performance of vernacular building attributes. The findings from simulation supported precedent analysis underscore this role, expanding upon the inventory of passive architectural devices highlighted by James Marston Fitch to include permeable enclosures, centralized wind chambers, and narrow floor plates (Fitch, 1961).
SAFEgress: A Flexible Platform to Study the Effect of Human and Social Behaviors on Egress Performance
Mei Ling Chu, Paolo Parigi, Kincho Law and Jean-Claude Latombe
Studies of past emergency events have revealed that occupant behavior, local geometry, and environmental constraints affect crowd movement and govern evacuation. Occupants' social characteristics and the unique layout of buildings should be considered to ensure that egress systems can handle evacuee behavior. This paper describes an agent-based egress simulation tool, SAFEgress, which is designed to incorporate human and social behaviors during evacuations. Simulation results on two scenarios are presented. The first scenario illustrates the effects of the exiting strategies adopted by occupants on evacuation. The second scenario shows the influence of social group behavior on evacuations. By assuming different behaviors using this prototype, engineers, designers, and facility managers can study the important human factors during an emergency situation and thereby improve the design of safe egress systems and procedures.
Alaa Alfakara and Ben Croxford
This paper presents a pilot investigation of an ongoing research to model detailed occupants' behaviours when dealing with summer overheating in UK domestic buildings using agent-based modelling and a dynamic simulation model. The pilot model was built in REPAST to initially model the behaviours of two adults in a flat, controlling windows and mechanical cooling systems to achieve comfort. Two cases were considered; a base-case behaviour, and an improved-case behaviour. Thermal Analysis Simulation software (TAS) was used to model the flat, where hourly cooling and windows schedules produced by agents were fed into TAS to estimate cooling load and internal temperatures. Initial results showed a reduced usage of mechanical cooling and reduced cooling load under improved-case behaviour.
Towards Visualization of Simulated Occupants and their Interactions with Buildings at Multiple Time Scales
Simon Breslav, Rhys Goldstein, Alex Tessier and Azam Khan
While most building simulation tools model occupancy using simple 24-hour profiles, researchers are applying machine learning and other advanced modeling approaches to simulate individual occupants and their interactions with buildings. For building designers to fully benefit from these increasingly advanced occupant models, visualizations must ultimately reveal subtle yet informative patterns contained in the simulation results. As a step in this direction, we focus on 3D animation and the challenges that arise when multiple time scales are involved. Specifically, we explore the use of stylized computer animation to clarify occupant movement, the use of cueing to draw attention to key events, and an original clock widget to consolidate time-related information.
Design models for an urban landscape could simulate how design alternatives perform with regards to volatile environmental phenomena, human movements and social interactions in the city. This paper presents a low-tech markerless approach to designing and developing a tangible 3D urban simulation table, using an ordinary table, generic building blocks and fabricated urban models, a Kinect and a projector. The digital 2D scene was projected on the table, in response to the forms and configurations of physical 3D models on the table. The installation that was developed for a public exhibition was specifically designed for visualizing wind flows and speed on an urban site. Users can get their hands on the 3D tangible building blocks to change the configuration of the urban model on the table and get a sense how it influences the wind flow around the site.
Seoug Oh, Veronica Patrick and Daniel Cardoso Llach
Interactive architecture is concerned with exchanges between humans, environmental factors, and the built environment. These systems are commonly presented as instruments to a) maintain adequate levels of interior lighting and temperature adapting to occupants' needs, and b) reduce building energy consumption by autonomously regulating solar intake in response to environmental factors (Cardoso et al. 2011). While these approaches have yielded promising questions and applications, in this paper we are more interested in exploring interactive architecture's potential role as catalyst for social activity. First, we analyze a selection of contemporary, interactive architecture projects, proposing a set of typologies of architectural interaction driven by the kind of exchanges each project establishes with both occupants and the environment. Second, we test these typologies through a controlled experiment with a responsive artifact that we use as a platform to investigate different types of interactivity and their effects on social activity. In one study, for instance, our responsive artifact is programmed to respond solely to environmental factors. In the second study, it is programmed to respond exclusively to human input. By presenting the typologies, the prototypes, and our observations about the interactions they enable, this paper proposes a new way of thinking "socially" about interactive systems, expanding on a crucial ongoing discussion about the relationship between interactive buildings, humans, and the environment.
This video presents an urban river design methodology that employs high-resolution hydraulic physical models. The video augments the process with metric and spatial performance analysis to enhance the methodology and facilitate iterative design for multiple critical functions. Overall, the approach prototypes an enhanced methodological common ground between fundamental civil engineering and landscape architecture design tools.
Erin Bradner, Francesco Iorio and Mark Davis
We report qualitative findings from interviews and observations detailing how professionals generate and evaluate design ideas using design optimization tools. We interviewed 18 architects and manufacturing design professionals. We frame our findings using the Geneplore model of creative cognition and classify examples of ideation and abstract design thinking arising from optimization workflows. Contrary to our expectations, we found that the computed optimum was often used as the starting point for design exploration, not the end product. We also found that parametric models, plus their associated parameters and simulations serve as an alternate, highly valued form of design documentation distinct from engineering schematics.
Omid Oliyan Torghabehi and Peter von Buelow
This research explores well-performing forms of mid-rise buildings which use cellular morphologies as perimeter bracing of the structure. The study is based on structural performance under earthquake loading. The geometry of the structure is created by parametric modeling following the principles of cellular space division. Optimization software is employed as a genetic based tool for exploration of design alternatives. The software combines parametric modeling, finite element performance simulation, and a genetic algorithm coupled with database storage. Externally braced frame structures consist of a braced load bearing system in the perimeter of the structure.
In this study a parametric, vertical, spatially framed system is developed based on cellular morphology. The parametric model is used in a performance-oriented process of form generation guided by a genetic algorithm (GA). Using the database to store all of the evaluated design alternatives ,then exploration of desired solutions will be performed through data mining. A pallet of well performing design alternatives is generated as the exploration result.
David Jason Gerber, Rodrigo Shiordia, Sreerag Veetil Palangat, Arjun Mahesh
This work presents prototypes of multi-agent system simulation for design search and exploration. We describe an experimental approach in part based on a previously established multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) framework. Here the work further explores the potential impact of MDO in conjunction with multi-agent systems on the early stages of design. Specifically, this paper addresses the potential of introducing agent based computing techniques into the multidisciplinary architectural design optimization and search workflow to tackle geometrically complex design problems and to facilitate early stage design exploration. To address these interests a series of prototyped workflows were studied inclusive of environmental performance and structural performance metrics and benchmarks. This paper presents a novel methodology for using simulation data in conjunction with multi-agent systems as a way for re-informing form and enhancing performance in a generative design environment. The methodology is based on the use of swarm algorithms and their integration with data generated by simulation software. The interaction between these two domains, the simulation data and swarm algorithms, generates the final outputs as a modified geometry that is then evaluated by comparison for enhanced design performance.
Johannes Braumann and Sigrid Brell-Cokcan
In the creative industry, architects and designers have to realize complex, prototypical projects without the profit margins or the economy of scale of other industries. One of the core enablers of such processes are fluid and efficient workflows that allow a maximum of flexibility throughout the design process. However, rather than fully automating the design process, approaches are required that allow quick and intuitive changes of key parameters. Using visual programming tools, architects and designers are now able to create their own virtual simulation environments, where they can change key parameters with the push of a slider, and observe the results on their designs in real time. This research shows approaches how parametric environments can be extended beyond simple design iterations to directly link the design with robotic fabrication. Due to their inherent multifunctionality, robotic arms are of special interest to the creative industry and can profit from the similar versatility of visual programming environments.
Andres Sevtsuk and Raul Kalvo
We introduce a method for creating free-form architectural structures out of 2D domain line networks. The resulting structure combines principles of thin shell and single-layer grid structures. The innovation lies in a three-dimensional geometrical arrangement, where all structural elements can be cut out of flat panels. The advantage of the proposed method is that structural support systems can be created for a wide variety of line networks using simple cutting technology (e.g. saws, laser-cutters, 3 axis CNC routers), making the construction of geometrically complex structures accessible to a wider audience at a significantly lower cost. We illustrate theoretical possibilities of the approach and demonstrate a full-scale application on a 200 square-meter pavilion built from plywood panels and clad with sheet-metal tiles at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. An analogous approach can be used with a high degree of flexibility to fabricate complex structures of different shape and pattern for various building applications.
Shajay Bhooshan, Mustafa El Sayed and Suryansh Chandra
The built-prototype described in this paper explores synergies between contemporary architecture, engineering and robotic fabrication technologies. The fabrication technology and process used is a scaled and numerically controlled version of the 'scoring-paper and manual folding' method used to find feasible geometries. The essential contribution of the paper is a case-study of a digital-design strategy that enabled multi-displinary and novel solutions to address the difficulties in the design and manufacture of architecture-scale assemblies of curve-crease-folded panels.
Tensegrity Systems Acting as Windbreaks: Form Finding and Fast Fluid Dynamics Analysis to Address Wind Funnel Effect
Panagiota Athanailidi, Ava Fatah gen Schieck, Vlad Tenu and Angelos Chronis
Wind speed in urban areas can create an unpleasant and dangerous environment, known as wind funnel effect, resulting in the non-use of urban spaces. This paper investigates a simulation-based method for designing tensegrity systems to mitigate the wind funnel effect in urban canyons, focusing on form finding of tensegrity systems. The following methodology was proposed: (1) modeling tensegrity structures accurately using Genetic Algorithms (GA) to find the most effective cubic units of struts and cables; (2) re-creating the wind funnel effect in a passage located between two parallel buildings; (3) finding the characteristics of the most porous windbreak structure that could effectively solve the funnel effect in the passage with the use of GA for optimization; (4) using tensegrity units acquired from step 1 to construct a windbreak with the characteristics found in step 3. All steps employed Fast Fluid Dynamic (FFD) simulations to test wind behavior in each environment. After this thorough investigation, the final results from the above steps showed that a proper combination of tensegrity units determined in step 1 is able to address the wind funnel effect effectively, creating a windbreak in a passage between parallel buildings.
Optimizing the Form of Tall Buildings to Achieve Minimum Structural Weight by Considering Along Wind Effect
Matin Alaghmandan, Mahjoub Elnimeiri, Anders Carlson and Robert Krawczyk
One of the most influential parameters in architectural and structural design of tall buildings, in addition to gravity loads, is the lateral load resulting from wind and earthquakes. Tall buildings have to be designed for a larger base shear resulting from wind forces rather than seismic forces; however, ductile detailing is used to account for seismic demands. The wind effect occurs primarily in two main modes of action: across wind and along wind. In this paper, a design method of tall buildings that considers integrated architectural and structural strategies to reduce the along wind effect in an effort to achieve the minimum weight of the structure is presented. This method creates an innovative computational workbench to design efficient tall buildings regarding the along wind effect by connecting an architectural parametric design procedure by AutoLisp (AutoCAD), a Computational Fluid Dynamics program (ANSYS), a structural analysis program (ETABS) and a genetic algorithm-based optimization procedure of ParGen.
Samuel Wilkinson, Gwyneth Bradbury and Sean Hanna
A new approach is demonstrated to approximate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in urban tall building design contexts with complex wind interference. This is achieved by training an artificial neural network (ANN) on local shape and fluid features to return surface pressure on test model meshes of complex forms. This is as opposed to the use of global model parameters and Interference Factors (IF) commonly found in previous work. The ANN is trained using shape and fluid features extracted from a set of evaluated principal (design) models (PMs). The regression function is then used to predict results based on shape features from the PM and fluid features from a one-off obstruction model (OM), context only, simulation. For the application of early-stage generative design, the errors (against CFD validation) are less than 10% centred standard deviation s, whilst the front-end prediction times for the test cases are around 20s (up to 500 times faster than the CFD).
Mehdi Maasoumy and Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli
A framework for the design and simulation of a building envelope and an HVAC system is used to compare advanced control algorithms in terms of energy efficiency, thermal comfort, and computational complexity. Building models are first captured in Modelica  to leverage Modelica's rich building component library and then imported into Simulink  to exploit Simulink's strong control design environment. Four controllers with different computational complexity are considered and compared: a proportional (P) controller with time varying temperature bounds, a tracking linear quadratic regulator (LQR) controller with time varying tuning parameters, a tracking disturbance-aware linear quadratic regulator (d-LQR) controller with time varying tuning parameters which incorporates predictive disturbance information and a model predictive controller (MPC). We assess the performance of these controllers using two defined criteria, i.e. energy and discomfort measured with appropriate metrics. We show that the d-LQR and MPC, when compared to the P controller, manage to reduce energy by 41.2% and 46% respectively, and discomfort from 3.8 to 0. While d-LQR and MPC have similar performance with respect to energy and discomfort, simulation time in the case of d-LQR is significantly less than the one of MPC.
Gabriel Wurzer and Wolfgang E. Lorenz
The operation of complex buildings (e.g. airports, hospitals, industrial facilities, penitentiaries) is commonly simulated forward in time: Agents arrive and perform their prescribed tasks, utilizing resources and space as required. When trying to understand the model's state at a certain point in time, say, "why is this resource over-utilized", one must either guess or run the simulation again to determine what the cause is. Our contribution lies in the introduction of causal chains into the workflow of an agent-based simulation, so that an end user (in our case: process planner and hospital architect) can get a further insight into the intermediate simulation result at a certain point in time, without having to re-run it.
Dimosthenis Ioannidis, Stelios Krinidis, Georgios Stavropoulos, Dimitrios Tzovaras and Spiridon Likothanassis
There is an ongoing research on reconciling the difference between predicted/simulated and actual energy consumption in buildings (either in design or in operational phase). In this paper a fully automated acquisition system for occupancy and energy measurement data is going to be presented. The proposed system comprises a depth camera cloud and RFID for occupancy extraction, a network of CO2 and temperature sensors and separate energy meters for HVAC, lighting, wall sockets and equipment. The extracted occupancy and energy consumption measurements of the proposed system could be utilized in a variety of applications, such as real-time control strategies, performance simulation analysis, high semantic occupancy and energy consumption information extraction, even business processes analysis and simulation. The proposed system has been evaluated to a large scale experiment, and its accuracy and robustness will prove its significance to the occupancy simulation processes, as well as to any kind of application that exploits occupancy.
Experimental Design of Energy Performance Simulation for Building Envelopes Integrated with Vegetation (Work in Progress)
Xiao Sunny Li, Ultan Byrne and Ted Kesik
Green facades have many benefits, yet few software tool and methods for architects have been developed to assess the quantitatve energy performance of green facades. This work-in-progress paper explores the methodologies of modeling and simulating the effects of green facades on wall surface temperatures. It proposes a partially parameterized workflow to compute the thermal performance of green facades, within a Rhinoceros-based platform and its plug-ins (Robert McNeel & Associates, Seattle, WA). By calibrating the computed results with field measurements, the paper is able to identify the importance of accurate information about vegetated cover and growth rates in modeling a green facade's performance. Also, the paper identifies evaporative cooling by vegetation's transpiration as a key component contributing to cooling.
Todor Stojanovski, Tesad Alam and Marcus Janson
Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a policy to design and develop dense, attractive and walkable urban environments that enhance the use of public transportation. In a broader perspective, TOD deals with synchronizing urban life--its growth and development, its everyday activities and mobility patterns--with public transportation systems.
Urban development is a product of negotiation, a political struggle between actors and stakeholders, their visions and interests, and their powers to induce urban change. In the background of urban politics, social and physical factors limit the potential to develop or transform. In this study, this potential for urban development and transformation is analyzed for three neighborhoods along the Tunnelbana, a subway line in Stockholm, with the help of geographic information systems (GIS) software. Two development scenarios are explored: one with TOD applied, the other with it dominating as a policy.
Trevor Patt and Jeffrey Huang
This paper describes a method for incorporating computational scenario modeling for integrated urban agricultural projections as an aid to the design process and the formulation of urban design guidelines. This method involves unique solutions for simplifying the input and management of large quantities of location-based data and hybridized processes for decision making among diverse and distributed behaviors. The project utilizes commonly available 3d-modeling software (Rhinoceros with Grasshopper) to produce a responsively interactive simulation of urban potentials for given parameters as well as a contextualizing series of alternate scenarios using variable parameters.
Daniel Cardoso Llach, Avni Argun, Dimitar Dimitrov and Qi Ai
Recent advances in material science and high-precision digital manufacturing methods, as well as the increased availability of low-cost sensing technologies and processing power, are making programmable responsive surfaces viable alternatives to traditional building materials. These advances bring about opportunities to redefine building skins as interactive components with significant impact on the environmental and aesthetic dimensions of architecture. However, current modeling and analysis software systems largely consider building materials as static entities, making the design and assessment of programmable responsive surfaces (such as surfaces of variable optical transmittance) considerably difficult. Expanding on our previous innovative research on organic electrochromic smart windows as architectural components (Cardoso Llach et al. 2009), we report on a new simulation environment, Acacia, for the design and analysis of highly responsive building facades. Unique to Acacia is its capacity to enable the modeling and assessment of facade behaviors in response to both environmental and human inputs.
Buildings are one of the major sectors that contribute to significant environmental impacts and energy consumption in the USA. Building sustainability can be realized through enhancing energy efficiency and reducing energy demand. One sustainable strategy for meeting such goals is to adopt high performance building envelopes integrated with an energy efficienct HVAC system. Heat transmission (U-factor) and air infiltration of building envelopes are closely correlated to building energy conservation. The primary goal of this paper is to understand the energy implication of U-factor and air infiltration of building envelopes for energy conservation. The research is based on a case study project, a residential building in Calgary, Alberta, Canada designed based on Passivhaus (PH) criteria. In order to reduce the U-factor of the glazing facades of the case study building, a high performance glazing system is discussed and respective energy saving potentials are estimated using a building energy simulation tool. Air tightness of building envelopes is also discussed as it plays a crucial role in the heating energy consumption of buildings in cold climates. The study confirms that both enhanced U-factor and airtightness reduce energy consumption by 30~40%. The proper choice of window technologies and field quality workmanship that enhance U-factor and air tightness becomes essential in building sustainability in severely cold climates.