Venis: A designer-centric support tool for building performance design at early design stages

Abstract

Design support tools are increasingly used to address complex issues. However, existing tools are limited in the interpretability of their solutions, the participation of architects, and the developability of the framework. They might provide architects with “non-guide assistance” throughout the performance design process. Venis, a designer-centric support tool that provides interactive decision-making and automatic optimization, was proposed to address these concerns. The former mechanism provides architects with reasonable, interpretable suggestions for schemes, where the intentions of architects are fully integrated into the deepening design. The latter mechanism inspires architects in the absence of clear concepts by generating numerous alternatives and assisting in scheme selection through comprehensive metrics. Venis also incorporates real-time performance evaluation, full-process visualization, a user-friendly interface, and generalizable design scenarios for architects. Feedback from professionals has proven its validity. The results show that Venis can assist architects in fully exploring and improving performance efficiently and reasonably.