Building simulation and evolutionary optimization in the conceptual design of a high-performance office building

This paper outlines a digital design and simulation-based process conceived and tested, for the automation of environmentally responsive building ‘forms’, optimized for Energy and Lighting performance. The process sequences 4 different modeling and simulation programs to evaluate energy loads and lighting levels of a typical office building whose forms are ‘generated’ by an automated script running Rhino + Grasshopper, EnergyPlus, MATLAB and RADIANCE. Deployed in a coordinated fashion, the programs automate the delivery of a building’s overall volumetric dimensions, using a Genetic Algorithm and a Single Objective Function. This is the process whose, development, deployment and testing are discussed in this paper.