CORAL: introducing a fully computational plug-in for stadium design and optimization; a case study of finding optimal spectators’ viewing angle

ABSTRACT

Designing multidisciplinary subjects needs a team to collaborate from the first stages of design. Architecture, structure, fire discipline, mechanical and electrical realm have to be integrated to design an appropriate building, particularly mega-scale projects. One of the significant projects is stadium, because of the complexity of the project's function. There is no doubt that architects seek to provide improved accessibility and safety for all groups of people in the stadiums. In this research, a plug-in for (Grasshopper/Rhinoceros) software is developed and presented which influences the design of stadiums in various steps, including architectural design, structural design, evacuation and energy considerations. Moreover, a fully computational process for achieving ‘optimal viewing angles of spectators will be presented and implemented with the help of plug-in outputs.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital design
• parametric design
• computational model
• grasshopper
• scripting
• stadium

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Seyed Hossein Zargar http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7676-980X

Matin Alaghmandan http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6630-4769

Notes

1. BIM (Building Information Modeling) methodology intents the integration of all phases of the construction process, i.e. the integration and promotion of collaborative work by all the design disciplines involved in the design phase (Maia, Mêda, and Freitas 2015).

2. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) from conceptual design stages is the key to full consideration of the many criteria, constraints and features of the final design solution. The Integrated Project Delivery Team offers a solution-oriented approach. At a very early stage (project development, pre-draft phase) the entire planning (design) is carried out by a team that involves not only an architect and a structural engineer, but also consultants in the areas of construction management, MEP engineering, energy technology, building physics, acoustics, façade construction and, depending on the type of project, other specialists (Jones 2014).

3. Check the final video here: https://vimeo.com/256076551

4. The Galapagos plug-in, which Rutten has developed for Grasshopper®, implements two generic solvers (one using a genetic algorithm and one using a simulated annealing algorithm). A generic solver will find a solution to a problem that can be expressed in a mathematical way; however, as he explains here, while these solutions may not be exact, they will be very good (Rutten 2013).

5. Opossum is the first publicly available (from www.food4rhino.com), model-based optimization tool aimed at architectural design optimization (ADO) and especially applicable to problems that involve time-intensive performance simulations of for example day-lighting and building energy (Janssen et al. 2017).

6. Pathfinder is a Advanced movement simulation combined with high-quality 3-D animated results, gives you reliable answers quickly (Thunderhead Engineering Consultants 2018).