Conceptual Building Design Research Articles

Robust passive damper design for building structures under uncertain structural parameter environments

An enhanced and efficient methodology is proposed for evaluating the robustness of an uncertain structure with passive dampers. Although the structural performance for seismic loads is an important design criterion in earthquake-prone countries, the structural parameters such as storey stiffnesses and damping coefficients of passive dampers are uncertain due to various factors or sources, e.g. initial manufacturing errors, material deterioration, temperature dependence. The concept of robust building design under such uncertain structural-parameter environment may be one of the most challenging issues to be tackled recently. By applying the proposed method of interval analysis and robustness evaluation for predicting the response variability accurately, the robustness of a passively controlled structure can be evaluated efficiently in terms of the so-called robustness function. An application is presented of the robustness function to the design and evaluation of passive damper systems.

Factors Affecting Ventilation and Acoustical Quality in a Sustainably-Designed and in Conventional Buildings — A Pilot Study

This paper discusses a pilot study involving direct monitoring of airflow and acoustical quality in a sustainably-designed and in conventional buildings. The objectives were to measure these environmental aspects, determine the factors affecting them and the relationships between them and key building-design concepts, and consider the implications of the results for ventilation-system design. Selected rooms in buildings with natural and mechanical ventilation, without and with acoustical treatment, were monitored. Measurements were made of airflow rates and acoustical quality. Correlations between these environmental aspects, the types of building and ventilation system, and the building window status were investigated. In rooms with natural ventilation, noise levels were lower; however, the rooms had lower airflow rates. Rooms with mechanical ventilation had higher airflow rates, but noise levels were higher; HVAC noise was a problem if the system was not well designed. In naturally-ventilated buildings, airflow rates and noise levels were low with windows closed, but opening the windows to increase the airflow rate resulted in higher noise levels. The results of the study suggest that the acceptability of indoor environments in buildings depends on the degree of compliance of the design and its implementation with standards and design guidelines, whether the original design is ‘sustainable’ or not.

Reflections Based on the Concept of Low Carbon Building Design

According to statistics, the annual increased floor area in China reaches about 2 billion, almost surpasses the sum of that in all developed countries, while the energy consumption per unit floor area is 2 to 3 times more than that of developed countries. The building energy consumption has accounted for more than 35 percent in China's total energy consumption. China is facing a serious crisis of energy and resources, so it is significant to realize energy conservation in building and low carbon. The building designs based on the concept of low carbon should embody a design principle including low-carbon, social demands, adaptation to local conditions, and sustainable development. Research and application of the technology of natural ventilation, solar applications, ground source heat pump, and green energy-saving materials are effective to achieve the low carbon building design. We also get some inspirations from domestic and international typical case.

Design Scenarios: Enabling transparent parametric design spaces

This paper presents a novel methodology called Design Scenarios (DSs) intended for use in conceptual design of buildings. DS enables multidisciplinary design teams to streamline the requirements definition, alternative generation, analysis, and decision-making processes by providing a methodology for building and managing requirements driven design spaces with parametric Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools. DS consists of four interdependent models: (1) Requirements Model – stakeholders and designers explicitly define and prioritize context specific design requirements; (2) Scenarios Model (SM) – designers formally transform these requirements into actions necessary to achieve them, and determine the geometric and material parameters, interrelationships, and potential conflicts; (3) Parametric Process Model (PPM) – CAD experts build and represent the technical implementation of a SM in a parametric model to enable design teams to manage and communicate its CAD models; (4) Alternative Analysis Model – analyze and visually report performance back to the designers and stakeholders. This paper motivates the need for the DS methodology thorough an industry case study, and establishes points of departure for the methodology through literature review. Next, the paper details the elements and methods in the methodology, describes its implementation into a software prototype, provides an illustrative example to explain, and an industry test case to validate how DS can potentially enable multidisciplinary teams to generate and communicate larger and better performing design spaces more efficiently than with traditional methods.

Sustainable building design under uncertain structural-parameter environment in seismic-prone countries

Abstract The structural member stiffness and strength of buildings are uncertain due to various factors resulting from randomness, material deterioration, temperature dependence, etc. The concept of sustainable building design under such uncertain structural-parameter environment may be one of the most challenging issues to be tackled recently. By predicting the response variability accurately, the elongation of service life of buildings may be possible. In this paper, it is shown that interval analysis in terms of uncertain structural parameters is an effective tool for evaluating the sustainability of buildings in earthquake-prone countries. All the combinations of uncertain structural parameters become huge numbers and this difficulty can be overcome by introducing the sensitivity or Taylor series expansion analysis. In order to demonstrate the usefulness and reliability of the proposed method, a shear building model is used including passive viscous dampers with supporting members. It is demonstrated that the proposed method is actually useful for the development of the concept of sustainable building design under such uncertain structural-parameter environment.

FACTORS AFFECTING VENTILATION, INDOOR-AIR QUALITY AND ACOUSTICAL QUALITY IN ‘GREEN’ AND NON-‘GREEN’ BUILDINGS: A PILOT STUDY

This paper discusses a pilot project involving the direct monitoring of ventilation, indoor-air quality and the acoustical conditions in selected nominally ‘green’ and non-‘green’ buildings located on a university campus. The objectives were to measure parameters quantifying these three aspects of indoor environmental quality, determine the relationships between them and the building-design concepts, and evaluate the implications of the results for ventilation-system design, especially in ‘green’ buildings. Measurements were made in rooms, with and without acoustical treatment, in buildings with natural ventilation or mechanical (displacement and/or mixed-flow) ventilation systems. Measurements were made of ventilation rates (air changes per hour), indoor air quality (respirable-fibre, total-VOC and ultrafine-particulate concentrations), and the acoustical conditions (noise levels and reverberation times). Correlations between the environmental results, the building concept, the ventilation concept and the building window status were explored. In rooms with natural ventilation, low-frequency noise and total sound-pressure levels were lower; however, the rooms had higher ultrafine-particulate counts and lower ventilation rates. Rooms with mechanical ventilation had higher low-frequency and total sound-pressure levels, higher ventilation rates and fibre concentrations, but lower concentrations of ultrafine particulates. It was concluded that, in general, mechanical ventilation can provide better indoor air-quality, but that HVAC noise is an issue if the system is not properly designed. In ‘green’ buildings, noise levels were acceptable when the windows were closed, but increasing the ventilation rate by opening the windows resulted in higher noise levels. The results suggest that the acceptability of environmental factors in buildings depends on the degree of compliance of the design and its implementation with standards and design guidelines (i.e. for ventilation, air quality, thermal comfort, etc.), whether the original design concept is ‘green’ or non-‘green’.

Structure Design for Green Building in some Residential Area in Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City

There are six basic control items, land saving, energy saving, water saving, material saving, indoor environment and operation, among which, only material saving are related to structure design. We followed the green building design concept and the control items list in those standards during structure design of one of the residential area in Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, which consist of 15~18-story residential building connected to a large underground garage, as is shown below.

Application of layout and topology optimization using pattern gradation for the conceptual design of buildings

This paper explores the use of manufacturing-type constraints, in particular pattern gradation and repetition, in the context of building layout optimization. By placing constraints on the design domain in terms of number and variable size of repeating patterns along any direction, the conceptual design for buildings is facilitated. To substantiate the potential future applications of this work, examples within the context of high-rise building design are presented. Successful development of such ideas can contribute to practical engineering solutions, especially during the building design process. Examples are given to illustrate the ideas developed both in two-dimensional and three-dimensional building configurations.

Multiple regression models for energy use in air-conditioned office buildings in different climates

An attempt was made to develop multiple regression models for office buildings in the five major climates in China – severe cold, cold, hot summer and cold winter, mild, and hot summer and warm winter. A total of 12 key building design variables were identified through parametric and sensitivity analysis, and considered as inputs in the regression models. The coefficient of determination R 2 varies from 0.89 in Harbin to 0.97 in Kunming, indicating that 89–97% of the variations in annual building energy use can be explained by the changes in the 12 parameters. A pseudo-random number generator based on three simple multiplicative congruential generators was employed to generate random designs for evaluation of the regression models. The difference between regression-predicted and DOE-simulated annual building energy use are largely within 10%. It is envisaged that the regression models developed can be used to estimate the likely energy savings/penalty during the initial design stage when different building schemes and design concepts are being considered.

An investigation of the option space in conceptual building design for advanced building simulation

This article describes research conducted to gather empirical evidence on size, character and content of the option space in building design projects. This option space is the key starting point for the work of any climate engineer using building performance simulation who is supporting the design process. The underlying goal is to strengthen the role of advanced computing in building design, especially in the early conceptual stage, through a better integration of building performance simulation tools augmented with uncertainty analysis and sensitivity analysis. Better integration will need to assist design rather than automate design, allowing a spontaneous, creative and flexible process that acknowledges the expertise of the design team members. This research investigates and contrasts emergent option spaces and their inherent uncertainties in an artificial setting (student design studios) and in real-life scenarios (commercial design project case studies). The findings provide empirical evidence of the high variability of the option space that can be subjected to uncertainty analysis and sensitivity analysis.

Determining the structural layout of orthogonal framed buildings

When designing framed commercial buildings, achieving a satisfactory column layout is one of the primary objectives. Design systems to help designers with conceptual building design have, over the last decade, been developed using evolutionary algorithms. However, one limiting feature of the methods which have been developed is that the representation is limited to rectangular buildings. Most buildings are not rectangular and so this is a significant deficiency. A method of determining column layouts for orthogonal buildings is developed using the sweep line algorithm coupled to an adjacency graph. The method is tested on various examples and is shown to work well unless the building shape results in a large number of partitions.

Modeling transient snowdrift development around complex three-dimensional structures

The prediction of wind driven snowdrift development around complex surface obstacles and elevated structures presently relies heavily on experience and experimental and numerical flow field analyses using, for example, boundary layer wind tunnels, cryospheric wind tunnels, water flumes and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In this paper, a snowdrift modeling method is presented that compliments these techniques by using CFD coupled with a domain adaptation strategy to facilitate the transient changes in snow surface topography. The numerical technique is applied here to simulate the snowdrift development around two adjacent cubical buildings, around a complex of surface mounted buildings and around an elevated structure. The analysis technique presented allows the evaluation and three-dimensional visualization of snowdrift development, which assists the conceptual building design process to manage potential snowdrifts on and around these structures.

Seismic conceptual design of buildings

Seismic conceptual design of buildings

Comparison of neural network and binary logistic regression methods in conceptual design of tall steel buildings

PurposeTo investigate the feasibility of using artificial neural networks for conceptual design of bracings systems for tall steel buildings.Design/methodology/approachDatabase of 234 design examples has been developed using commercially available detailed design software. These examples represent building up to 20 storeys. Feed forward back‐propagation neural network is trained on these examples. The results obtained from the artificial neural network are evaluated by re‐substitution, hold‐out and ten‐fold cross‐validation techniques.FindingsResults indicate that artificial neural network would give a performance of 97.91 percent (ten‐fold cross‐validation). The performance of this system is benchmarked by developing a binary logistic regression model from the same data. Performance of the two models has been compared using McNemar's test and receiver operation characteristics curves. Artificial neural network shows a better performance. The difference is found to be statically significant.Research limitations/implicationsThe developed model is applicable only to steel building up to 20 storeys. The feasibility of using artificial neural networks for conceptual design of bracings systems for tall steel buildings more than 20 storeys has not been investigated.Practical implicationsImplementation of the broad methodology outlined for the use of neural networks can be accomplished by conducting short training courses. This will provide personnel with flexibility in addressing buildings‐specifics bracing conditions and limitations.Originality/valueIn tall building design a lot of progress has been made in the development of software tools for numerical intensive tasks of analysis, design and optimization, however, professional software tools are not available to help the designer to choose an optimum building configuration at the conceptual design stage. The presented research provides a methodology to investigate the feasibility of using artificial neural networks for conceptual design of bracings systems for tall buildings. It is found that this approach for the selection of bracings in tall buildings is a better and cost effective option compared with database generated on the basis of expert opinion. It also correctly classifies and recommends the type of trussed bracing system.

The nD-based Computer Game: Engaging School Children in the Construction Design Process

Engaging end-users effectively in the construction process is becoming increasingly important in the UK. However, this engagement is often hindered by the amount and complexity of information and knowledge that needs to be communicated among project stakeholders. This can often create a ‘mismatch’ between stakeholders’ expectations and the physical building constructed. A survey was carried out in two secondary schools in the North West of the UK to determine whether a ‘mismatch’ existed. An nD-based computer game was suggested to address this mismatch, the rubrics of which aimed to facilitate the early engagement of endusers in the construction process by providing ‘what-if’ analysis through visually shareable information. This approach was regarded as a self-learning tool, through which end-users could learn about the complexity of the construction process and the decisions and trade-offs being made. This research targeted school children (aged 11–16) as the end-users, under the Building Schools for the Future initiative funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. In order to simplify the information communicated to school children, a concept map was developed to identify the interrelationship between the nD concept, the gaming technology concept and the school building design concept. These interrelationships were used to inform the secondary phase of this research (unreported) which will be the actual development of the computer game.

Acoustical case studies of three green buildings

Case studies of 3 green buildings with LEED certifications that required extensive acoustical retrofit work to become satisfactory work environments for their intended user groups will be used to define areas where green building design concepts and acoustical design concepts require reconciliation. Case study 1 is an office and conference center for a city environmental education agency. Large open spaces intended to collect daylight through clerestory windows provided large, reverberant volumes with few acoustic finishes that rendered them unsuitable as open office space and a conference room/auditorium. Case Study 2 describes one of the first gold LEED buildings in the southeast whose primary design concepts were so narrowly focused on thermal and lighting issues that they often worked directly against basic acoustical requirements resulting in sound levels of NC 50–55 in classrooms and faculty offices, crosstalk between classrooms and poor room acoustics. Case study 3 is an environmental education and conference center with open public areas, very high ceilings, and all reflective surfaces made from wood and other environmentally friendly materials that result in excessive loudness when the building is used by the numbers of people which it was intended to serve.

A Quantitative Assessment of the Environmental Impact of Flexible Partitions

Each person in Hong Kong produces three times more waste than that of Singapore. This is because a large portion of the waste in Hong Kong is from the construction sector. Re-decoration work carried out by dwellers in Hong Kong is one of the major sources of the construction and demolition waste. Development of flexible reusable infill systems with high recycling potential is significant. A number of these systems are currently used, mainly in public and commercial buildings. They may have potential to be applied in residential buildings in the future. This paper starts with an introduction to the infill systems applied in open building history. It then points out the need to investigate the development of infill processes by integrating infill products available in the market. The paper further introduces current open building studies on reusability of infill systems and addresses the problem that there is a lack of quantitative information on embodied energy and other environmental impacts of infill systems. In the methodology section the paper describes five types of partition walls selected, ranging from low flexibility to high flexibility. Applying an evaluation model for environmental impact, the paper analyzes embodied energy intensity, and environmental impacts of each partition systems in two simulated situations. One is in a two room unit of a public housing prototype and the other is in private apartment. It concludes that partition walls with higher flexibility are highly intensive in their embodied energy. In other environmental impacts, especially recycling potential, flexible partition wall panels exceed that of conventional block-work partitions. The study will enable more complete information to be obtained concerning the environmental impact of infill components and will assist architects and other building professional wisely apply open building design concepts.

Providing computational support for the selection of energy saving building components

This paper summarizes a PhD-project that is currently under completion at Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture, Building Physics Group. The general problem addressed in this project is the integration of building simulation tools and building design. This problem has been narrowed down to computational support for one specific type of building design decision: the selection and integration of one or more energy saving building components like solar walls, advanced glazing systems, sunspaces and photovoltaic arrays into a given building design. The paper provides an overview of the main research efforts that were carried out during the research [Computational Support for the Selection of Energy Saving Building Components, PhD thesis (in preparation), Building Physics Group, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology, 2004]. Based on results and on views that have been described in earlier publications (e.g. [Beter ontwerp door gebouwprestatie-simulatie? in: Proceedings of the Third IBPSA-NVL Conference, Petten, The Netherlands, December 2001]), the paper then will identify relevant, challenging issues for future research in the area of integration of building simulation tools into the building design process. Specific attention will be paid to issues related to the use of different categories of tools (simulation tools as well as other instruments) for the development of new, energy-efficient building design concepts.

Conceptual Building Design—Evolutionary Approach

Issues relating to the application of the genetic algorithm (GA) to conceptual building design are addressed and designer support techniques are introduced. Particular attention is given to methods for representing domain knowledge, necessary for creating a general building design model, and techniques that permit the manipulation of both structural and architectural design aspects so that the power of the GA is effectively exploited to support the role of the designer as a decision maker. An example of a decision support system is presented, and its robustness and power of knowledge discovery are demonstrated by means of a parametric study. The role of human-computer interaction in knowledge discovery is also considered, both in the context of better understanding of the design domain and as a tool to increase user confidence in the outcome. This paper is addressed toward readers involved in conceptual building design who have basic knowledge of genetic algorithms.

Designer Centered Development of GA-Based DSS for Conceptual Design of Buildings

Research into computer-assisted design is often undertaken with relatively little input from practicing designers. Without such involvement, one can argue that the techniques developed are not subjected to any form of evaluation or independent scrutiny and thus the methodology is wanting in terms of scientific rigor. The paper describes a research project to examine the use of evolutionary computing techniques for the design of commercial office-type buildings. The research has involved a considerable amount of input from designers, and the contributions that they make to the research are identified and discussed. In particular, the benefits gained from their evaluation of the software are considered. Also, the possible pitfalls regarding such an approach to research are identified.