Optimizing mixed-use district designs in hot climates: A two-phase computational workflow for energy balance and environmental performance

Abstract

While mixed-use developments remain one of the preferable strategies for sustainable urbanism, there is a need for design-integrated methods to determine the performative impacts of mixed-use and mixed-building forms. This paper presents a computational method for optimizing the energy balance of mixed-use districts in hot climates. Its methodology includes an energy parametric analysis and a correlation study that introduces the Solar Cover Factor (SCF), a solar-driven metric for predicting energy balance in mixed-use configurations. Three studies involving multi-objective optimization incorporate the SCF and the context exposure index. In a second phase of analysis, the optimization results are evaluated and compared to a uniform design using a series of environmental key performance indicators. Results indicate that diverse designs have the potential for up to twice the energy balance and that all the best-performing solutions exhibit a high diversity factor. The results demonstrated the high potential of the SCF metric to account for energy tradeoffs in the optimization of mixed-use districts. The two-phase optimization sequence offers a new hierarchy between automated and interactive analytical workflows for zero-energy performance and livable districts, which can be used to address other environmental challenges in future applications for sustainable urban development where multiple performance indicators interact.