Ten questions concerning environmental architectural design exploration

Abstract

It is widely recognized that the sustainability of the built environment is one of the key strategies to tackle global crises such as climate change, resource depletion, and human health. An environmentally driven approach to architectural design and urban planning through simulations has been around for many decades. However, architects and planners haven't fully taken advantage of its potential yet due to the complexity of the tasks and the fragmentation of tools and methods in different fields of expertise. This paper aims to demonstrate how the nascent field of environmental architectural design exploration is a viable answer to complex tasks and challenges through the integration of sustainable design, environmental simulations, building performance analysis, and computational procedures leveraging parametric design environments. After defining the context that favored its development, the ten questions answered present the environmental metrics and design parameters, propose a taxonomy of simulation tools and methods, present optimization processes, identify the required data, and introduce a classification of co-simulation and design exploration workflows, emphasizing their potential for the design of sustainable buildings and districts. Then focus is given to the scales and domains of application and to the potential of machine learning methods. The paper concludes by presenting applications in practice and discussing challenges and future opportunities. Strategies and operational procedures emerge from the ten questions. They emphasize the use of holistic approaches and the selection of balanced design solutions allowed by environmental architectural design exploration for the development of a sustainable built environment.