Sustainability Certification Systems as Goals in a Generative Design System

SimAUD 2021 Conference Proceedings: Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design

Niko McGlashan, Curtis Ho, Simon Breslav, David Gerber, Azam Khan

April 2021
10 Pages

Sustainability of the built environment has become a critical concern globally. However, a core challenge in achieving sustainability is the variety of goals and trade-offs to consider in the architectural design process. In this paper, we propose a novel design process that attempts to address both of these issues. We developed a prototype system that implements these concepts by automating several metrics from the LEED, AIA 2030 Challenge, and WELL systems, within a generative design framework. We then discuss implications for the certification systems and generative design systems. First, a myriad of certification systems for environmental, economic, and social sustainability in buildings have been developed, collecting the variety of goals that need to be considered into goal-sets. Second, the complexity of trade-offs, and the interactions between them, can be optimized by a generative design system that seeks to improve certification scores in these goal-sets. By creating design systems that can generate the variations needed to explore the interactions between trade-offs, these computational systems can help in finding designs that increase levels of sustainability as verified by certifications.