This paper discusses the latest developments, abilities and two real world use cases from practic... more This paper discusses the latest developments, abilities and two real world use cases from practice of a next generation parametric system Packhunt.io developed by the authors and their colleagues which uses a no-code approach (visual programming) to modelling and configuration to express design logic and the related processes to control the design, engineering and production to build the next generation of parametric models, Building Information Models and Digital Twins. This technology can be easily adopted by architects, engineers and designers without access to specialised design systems to build self-service automated processes, (online) configurators, Digital Twins (parametric BIM) informed by physical measurements (sensors) and other types of design feedback, systems for optimisation and exploration and 3D visualisation. The user can build her own application which is tailored to the requirements and preferences of the user which helps the user to support her own processes. This system utilises a cloud-native approach to harness the advantages of cloud technology, such as scalability, accessibility, availability and low initial investments. This means that the system can handle data and models larger than a single machine, process faster than single machine systems, is accessible from anywhere in the world through a web browser and is always available to deliver data to which is crucial for sensor-data delivery and Internet of Things scenarios.
The purpose of this project is to provide an interactive platform for clients and design teams to... more The purpose of this project is to provide an interactive platform for clients and design teams to evaluate the consequences of shape, form, and briefing decisions on the energy use, embodied energy, and capital / life-cycle cost of a tall building early in the design process. The Tall Building Simulation (TBS) model is the result of a collaborative partnership between Aedas, Arup, Hilson Moran (HM), and Davis Langdon (DL). This article details both the technical content behind the model and an analysis of the relationships demonstrated by the outcome. It is estimated that most decisions determining the sustainability of a project are made in the first 1 percent of a project’s program, whereas the majority of the information required for sustainability assessment is not usually available or examined until after the concept stage. By this time, most solutions would need design or briefing changes that are too costly to implement. The model incorporates early stage spatial, mechanical ...
In this paper the initiative “sustainability-open” will be introduced. The aim of the initiative ... more In this paper the initiative “sustainability-open” will be introduced. The aim of the initiative is to take away one of the reasons why buildings and other objects in the built environment are often not designed in a sustainable manner: the availability of clear and insightful software to analyse and assess the sustainable performance of the design. Most software applications designed for this purpose do not reveal their internal and implicit method to designers and cannot be easily adapted to the purposes of the designer or engineer. “sustainability-open” consists of an opensource framework on which both open-source and close-source components can be build which contain the specific design, analysis and assessment knowledge for these purposes. The development consists of a framework and components. The open-source framework and the components developed by the research team are available free of charge, which means that cost is no longer an issue to design in a sustainable manner. T...
This paper presents the results of the investigation into the possibilities for the implementatio... more This paper presents the results of the investigation into the possibilities for the implementation of a Building Performance Simulation design toolbox during the early stages of facade design, based on the sustainabilityopen framework [2]. The background and development of the EnergyFacade toolbox will be discussed which has been built on the principles of parametric and associative design [3] as a strategy for operational energy assessment and optimisation.
This paper presents the development of a novel computational framework with which expert analysis... more This paper presents the development of a novel computational framework with which expert analysis knowledge can be captured, stored and dynamically retrieved when required to determine the performance of a building design with respect to user-defined requirements. By subdividing the engineer's and designer's knowledge into discrete steps, and storing these steps in a database along with a description of the context in which the knowledge is to be applied, a searchable knowledge base is created. Given a context consisting of a BIM model and one or more building requirements for which metrics are to be provided, the applicable knowledge can be iteratively retrieved from the knowledge base. Through computational reasoning an analysis is acquired as a chain of logically connected analysis steps. Foreseen benefits of use of the framework include safekeeping and disclosure of AEC expert's knowledge and automation of analyses without loss of analysis transparency.
The distinction whether a geometric description is complex or not is particularly important from ... more The distinction whether a geometric description is complex or not is particularly important from an analysis and construction technology viewpoint in relation with the digital means of modelling this geometry. As complex geometry possibly leads to insurmountable problems or disproportionate high costs, realising a design may be reliant on rationalisation of the geometry. This means that embedding structural, manufacturing and construction aspects early on in the design process is of interest and is largely related to notions of surface rationalisation. A design approach is proposed which takes into account the definitions of rational surfaces with which initial design definitions can be transferred to rationalised designs with the aid of digital tools. Since they contain specific characteristics in relation to the integration of geometric design with manufacturability and constructability, the research focuses on parametric definitions of the rational surface class of developable su...
This paper will present the opportunities a dashboard-based system provides to gather information... more This paper will present the opportunities a dashboard-based system provides to gather information on alternatives and display this in such a way that it will help the user making decisions by making use of multi-disciplinary optimisation (MDO) technology. The multi-disciplinary set up of the program will enable the user to understand the communication between the various disciplines involved, as well as being able to explain others parties why certain choices are made and how the design would benefit from this.
This paper presents a proof of concept study into a computational strategy for reusing structural... more This paper presents a proof of concept study into a computational strategy for reusing structural stadium elements. The strategy goal is overcoming the reuse design strain through implementation of a genetic algorithm. This algorithm is calibrated to search for a structural frame configuration, while using a reusable element set, meeting floor space requirements and following the building mass shape. The most important benefit of the algorithm implementation is its method of scouting the solution space. It accelerates the design process and presents the results in a transparent manner. These strategy aspects reduce the complications of reuse design and support the goal of encouraging the application of reuse design in practice. This will lead to a more sustainable construction industry. The algorithm has been applied on the Al Wakrah stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In this project the developer aims to deconstruct the second ring after the tournament. The presented strategy res...
At this point in time, 3D-printing techniques in general, but especially applied for the building... more At this point in time, 3D-printing techniques in general, but especially applied for the building industry, still are in a phase of early experiments. One of the experimental attempts is to print a full-scale, three-story high, house in Amsterdam, using an up scaled version of a FDM-printer that is able to print blocks of 1.8 x 1.8 x 3.0 meters using printable polymers. The paper focuses on answering the initial structural question that appears around this project, which is a research to the behavior of the currently applied printing material. The outcome of this research will be used to give recommendations for the structural design of printable geometries. The material research emphasis on obtaining the material properties that are most essential to be known for this particular printing material and the application of the material within this particular building project. These basically are the mechanical (strength) properties of the material and its thermal behavior. Since the FD...
This paper presents a novel approach to modelling and documenting design knowledge: to use parame... more This paper presents a novel approach to modelling and documenting design knowledge: to use parametric technology to explicitly store knowledge which exists in a group of people (such as a company), so that it can be reused over many projects and grow over time when more projects are designed. This approach has been applied and tested on a test case of common concrete viaducts. The outcome constitutes the first iteration of the development of a parametric viaduct design platform, aimed for architects and structural engineers. The motivation was to counter the fragmentation of the Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) industry, where each discipline encapsulates different knowledge areas, which results in miscommunication and the loss of valuable information and time. The suggested methodology aims at combining the BIM principles [1] with the concepts of parametric and associative design, as well as visual programming [2] to develop a common design platform for the architect ...
Journal of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, 2021
This paper presents a novel, next-generation, cloud-native parametric and associative platform fo... more This paper presents a novel, next-generation, cloud-native parametric and associative platform for digital knowledge, services and automation, and the rationalisation behind the development of and the need for this platform in relation to the history of computational design and engineering, and the advantages and limitations of each step in this evolution: Computer Aided Design (CAD), Building Information Modelling (BIM), Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Parametric and Associative Design (PAD), Generative Design and programming approaches to design and engineering. The paper discusses some of the key functionalities in relation to why they are useful as a next step in the digital transformation of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. The paper concludes with some of the challenges for the near future of this platform.
This paper presents the results of the investigation into the possibilities for the implementatio... more This paper presents the results of the investigation into the possibilities for the implementation of a Building Performance Simulation design toolbox during the early stages of facade design, based on the sustainability-open framework [2]. The background and development of the EnergyFacade toolbox will be discussed which has been built on the principles of parametric and associative design [3] as a strategy for operational energy assessment and optimisation.
This paper presents a computational strategy and parametric modelling toolbox which aim at enhanc... more This paper presents a computational strategy and parametric modelling toolbox which aim at enhancing the design- and production process of reinforcement in freeform curved surface structures. The computational strategy encompasses the necessary steps of raising an architectural curved surface model of a concrete building to production level in terms of reinforcement. The Reinforcement Toolbox supports this strategy by offering structural engineers and other professionals in the building industry the functionality to create digital reinforcement models for curved surface structures.
Conceptual design is the starting point of the design process. The conceptual design stage compri... more Conceptual design is the starting point of the design process. The conceptual design stage comprises the formation of several ideas or design concepts to meet the imposed constraints. StructuralComponents is a software application that attempts to provide the designing engineer with a suitable set of tools for this stage. It facilitates the exploration of the early design space with the proper balance between accuracy and the ability to explore. Using parametric-associative modelling, a structural design concept can be composed of parameters and object relations. Built-in design and analysis knowledge returns immediate output to guide the design process. The major development is a redevelopment of the software architecture as a client-server system in support of emphasising design exploration and a system of design plurality and directed optimisation.
This paper discusses the latest developments, abilities and two real world use cases from practic... more This paper discusses the latest developments, abilities and two real world use cases from practice of a next generation parametric system Packhunt.io developed by the authors and their colleagues which uses a no-code approach (visual programming) to modelling and configuration to express design logic and the related processes to control the design, engineering and production to build the next generation of parametric models, Building Information Models and Digital Twins. This technology can be easily adopted by architects, engineers and designers without access to specialised design systems to build self-service automated processes, (online) configurators, Digital Twins (parametric BIM) informed by physical measurements (sensors) and other types of design feedback, systems for optimisation and exploration and 3D visualisation. The user can build her own application which is tailored to the requirements and preferences of the user which helps the user to support her own processes. This system utilises a cloud-native approach to harness the advantages of cloud technology, such as scalability, accessibility, availability and low initial investments. This means that the system can handle data and models larger than a single machine, process faster than single machine systems, is accessible from anywhere in the world through a web browser and is always available to deliver data to which is crucial for sensor-data delivery and Internet of Things scenarios.
The purpose of this project is to provide an interactive platform for clients and design teams to... more The purpose of this project is to provide an interactive platform for clients and design teams to evaluate the consequences of shape, form, and briefing decisions on the energy use, embodied energy, and capital / life-cycle cost of a tall building early in the design process. The Tall Building Simulation (TBS) model is the result of a collaborative partnership between Aedas, Arup, Hilson Moran (HM), and Davis Langdon (DL). This article details both the technical content behind the model and an analysis of the relationships demonstrated by the outcome. It is estimated that most decisions determining the sustainability of a project are made in the first 1 percent of a project’s program, whereas the majority of the information required for sustainability assessment is not usually available or examined until after the concept stage. By this time, most solutions would need design or briefing changes that are too costly to implement. The model incorporates early stage spatial, mechanical ...
In this paper the initiative “sustainability-open” will be introduced. The aim of the initiative ... more In this paper the initiative “sustainability-open” will be introduced. The aim of the initiative is to take away one of the reasons why buildings and other objects in the built environment are often not designed in a sustainable manner: the availability of clear and insightful software to analyse and assess the sustainable performance of the design. Most software applications designed for this purpose do not reveal their internal and implicit method to designers and cannot be easily adapted to the purposes of the designer or engineer. “sustainability-open” consists of an opensource framework on which both open-source and close-source components can be build which contain the specific design, analysis and assessment knowledge for these purposes. The development consists of a framework and components. The open-source framework and the components developed by the research team are available free of charge, which means that cost is no longer an issue to design in a sustainable manner. T...
This paper presents the results of the investigation into the possibilities for the implementatio... more This paper presents the results of the investigation into the possibilities for the implementation of a Building Performance Simulation design toolbox during the early stages of facade design, based on the sustainabilityopen framework [2]. The background and development of the EnergyFacade toolbox will be discussed which has been built on the principles of parametric and associative design [3] as a strategy for operational energy assessment and optimisation.
This paper presents the development of a novel computational framework with which expert analysis... more This paper presents the development of a novel computational framework with which expert analysis knowledge can be captured, stored and dynamically retrieved when required to determine the performance of a building design with respect to user-defined requirements. By subdividing the engineer's and designer's knowledge into discrete steps, and storing these steps in a database along with a description of the context in which the knowledge is to be applied, a searchable knowledge base is created. Given a context consisting of a BIM model and one or more building requirements for which metrics are to be provided, the applicable knowledge can be iteratively retrieved from the knowledge base. Through computational reasoning an analysis is acquired as a chain of logically connected analysis steps. Foreseen benefits of use of the framework include safekeeping and disclosure of AEC expert's knowledge and automation of analyses without loss of analysis transparency.
The distinction whether a geometric description is complex or not is particularly important from ... more The distinction whether a geometric description is complex or not is particularly important from an analysis and construction technology viewpoint in relation with the digital means of modelling this geometry. As complex geometry possibly leads to insurmountable problems or disproportionate high costs, realising a design may be reliant on rationalisation of the geometry. This means that embedding structural, manufacturing and construction aspects early on in the design process is of interest and is largely related to notions of surface rationalisation. A design approach is proposed which takes into account the definitions of rational surfaces with which initial design definitions can be transferred to rationalised designs with the aid of digital tools. Since they contain specific characteristics in relation to the integration of geometric design with manufacturability and constructability, the research focuses on parametric definitions of the rational surface class of developable su...
This paper will present the opportunities a dashboard-based system provides to gather information... more This paper will present the opportunities a dashboard-based system provides to gather information on alternatives and display this in such a way that it will help the user making decisions by making use of multi-disciplinary optimisation (MDO) technology. The multi-disciplinary set up of the program will enable the user to understand the communication between the various disciplines involved, as well as being able to explain others parties why certain choices are made and how the design would benefit from this.
This paper presents a proof of concept study into a computational strategy for reusing structural... more This paper presents a proof of concept study into a computational strategy for reusing structural stadium elements. The strategy goal is overcoming the reuse design strain through implementation of a genetic algorithm. This algorithm is calibrated to search for a structural frame configuration, while using a reusable element set, meeting floor space requirements and following the building mass shape. The most important benefit of the algorithm implementation is its method of scouting the solution space. It accelerates the design process and presents the results in a transparent manner. These strategy aspects reduce the complications of reuse design and support the goal of encouraging the application of reuse design in practice. This will lead to a more sustainable construction industry. The algorithm has been applied on the Al Wakrah stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In this project the developer aims to deconstruct the second ring after the tournament. The presented strategy res...
At this point in time, 3D-printing techniques in general, but especially applied for the building... more At this point in time, 3D-printing techniques in general, but especially applied for the building industry, still are in a phase of early experiments. One of the experimental attempts is to print a full-scale, three-story high, house in Amsterdam, using an up scaled version of a FDM-printer that is able to print blocks of 1.8 x 1.8 x 3.0 meters using printable polymers. The paper focuses on answering the initial structural question that appears around this project, which is a research to the behavior of the currently applied printing material. The outcome of this research will be used to give recommendations for the structural design of printable geometries. The material research emphasis on obtaining the material properties that are most essential to be known for this particular printing material and the application of the material within this particular building project. These basically are the mechanical (strength) properties of the material and its thermal behavior. Since the FD...
This paper presents a novel approach to modelling and documenting design knowledge: to use parame... more This paper presents a novel approach to modelling and documenting design knowledge: to use parametric technology to explicitly store knowledge which exists in a group of people (such as a company), so that it can be reused over many projects and grow over time when more projects are designed. This approach has been applied and tested on a test case of common concrete viaducts. The outcome constitutes the first iteration of the development of a parametric viaduct design platform, aimed for architects and structural engineers. The motivation was to counter the fragmentation of the Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) industry, where each discipline encapsulates different knowledge areas, which results in miscommunication and the loss of valuable information and time. The suggested methodology aims at combining the BIM principles [1] with the concepts of parametric and associative design, as well as visual programming [2] to develop a common design platform for the architect ...
Journal of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, 2021
This paper presents a novel, next-generation, cloud-native parametric and associative platform fo... more This paper presents a novel, next-generation, cloud-native parametric and associative platform for digital knowledge, services and automation, and the rationalisation behind the development of and the need for this platform in relation to the history of computational design and engineering, and the advantages and limitations of each step in this evolution: Computer Aided Design (CAD), Building Information Modelling (BIM), Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Parametric and Associative Design (PAD), Generative Design and programming approaches to design and engineering. The paper discusses some of the key functionalities in relation to why they are useful as a next step in the digital transformation of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. The paper concludes with some of the challenges for the near future of this platform.
This paper presents the results of the investigation into the possibilities for the implementatio... more This paper presents the results of the investigation into the possibilities for the implementation of a Building Performance Simulation design toolbox during the early stages of facade design, based on the sustainability-open framework [2]. The background and development of the EnergyFacade toolbox will be discussed which has been built on the principles of parametric and associative design [3] as a strategy for operational energy assessment and optimisation.
This paper presents a computational strategy and parametric modelling toolbox which aim at enhanc... more This paper presents a computational strategy and parametric modelling toolbox which aim at enhancing the design- and production process of reinforcement in freeform curved surface structures. The computational strategy encompasses the necessary steps of raising an architectural curved surface model of a concrete building to production level in terms of reinforcement. The Reinforcement Toolbox supports this strategy by offering structural engineers and other professionals in the building industry the functionality to create digital reinforcement models for curved surface structures.
Conceptual design is the starting point of the design process. The conceptual design stage compri... more Conceptual design is the starting point of the design process. The conceptual design stage comprises the formation of several ideas or design concepts to meet the imposed constraints. StructuralComponents is a software application that attempts to provide the designing engineer with a suitable set of tools for this stage. It facilitates the exploration of the early design space with the proper balance between accuracy and the ability to explore. Using parametric-associative modelling, a structural design concept can be composed of parameters and object relations. Built-in design and analysis knowledge returns immediate output to guide the design process. The major development is a redevelopment of the software architecture as a client-server system in support of emphasising design exploration and a system of design plurality and directed optimisation.
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Papers by Jeroen Coenders