Building Massing Optimization in the Conceptual Design Phase

ABSTRACT

Taipei is the most densely populated city in Taiwan. Land is very expensive and living environment is crowded. Evaluation of shadow of building allocation and building massing estimate are two most important tasks of an architect in the conceptual design phase. In this investigation, we have interviewed a senior architect at an architectural firm in Taipei and found that in the conceptual design phase, in addition to legal evaluations, combining structure with the floor area and being able to precisely estimate are currently the most important issues to achieve. In order to achieve this objective, this investigation is based on the dimensionless building-massing algorithm and the parameters for legal evaluation of building shadows are introduced into the optimization tool design. The optimization tool is subsequently combined with the genetic algorithm to build a building massing simulation system to simulate the optimal solution. Optimized result is able to locate the best location coordinates and derive an accurate floor area of the building. The result of this investigation is aimed at assisting architects in providing an accurate quantitative analysis of building massing in the design conceptual phase.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Building massing
• optimization
• dimensionless
• genetic algorithm

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Science Council of the ROC, Taiwan for the project number: NSC 102-2221-E-011-120.