Multi-Objective Optimisation of Building Geometry for Energy Consumption and View Quality

: (MPhil Thesis)

Abstract

Property developers’ strict monetary-yielding objectives are pressuring architects to only prioritise the design variables that directly affect these objectives. The conflicting consequences of their design decisions are being ignored as a result of the shift in priorities and rigid time budgets.This dissertation tackles the conflict between the design of large glazed facades for maximised vistas, hence increased property value and the consequences of energy consumption. The conflicting objectives are treated as a multi-objective optimisation problem in search for solutions of optimal energy consumption and view quality. This is achieved in the form of an interactive software tool allowing users to modify and constrain the building geometry, simulate the cooling load and assign view values. A view-scoring method is developed in order to quantify and score a view according to the quality of its contents. An interactive evolutionary optimisation tool was implemented within the same software to search for building geometries of reduced cooling loads and high view values.

Date of Award	18 Dec 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Paul Shepherd (Supervisor) & Paul Richens (Supervisor)