Computational Narratives - Mega project

Computational Narratives Mega Project| Design Studio Ammar Taher 4745639 MSc Building Technology Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment TU Delft

• Introduction • work flow

collaborative flow

digital flow

data exchange

• Form generation

Volumes zoning

Schematic design

Objectives Analysis: Refferenced cut

Solar radiation analysis

Solar refelction analysis

CONTENT

Form optimization Process set Intial results Final results

• Structure design

structure systems Diagrid structure Tubular structure

karamba analysis

• Facade panelling

panelling

panel design localizing grid grid sizing

Grouping Grouping panels dimensioninng

• conclusion

• Appendix

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INTRODUCTION WORK FOCUS as a computational design I had 3main tasks next to my regular work flow organization and frame setting for it. the first focus was mainly helping the architect in the early design stage to generate the mass of the tower while integrating the possible objectives that other disicplines might require as climate and facade designer. further more i helped in optimizing the form using multi objective engines for grasshopper. secondly, I was responsible together with the structural designer to create and develope the structure system for the tower mass while it was developed before and after the midterm. we managed to test two different systems and prepare them for the structural analysis in grasshopper and also to further accurate analysis in GSA software. lastly, the main focus in the last two weeks of the project was to optimize the facade panelling and prepare the unique panells as groups sorted and ordered for production process.

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this report starts with the regular work flow hwo it was set and prepared to be as a starting point for the work come afterwards. then the other three tasks are sorted down in diagrams but also results that were generated during the development process of the project starting from mass development to the positioning of the tower in the land. the report is a narrative that further explains these steps with diagrams more than text.

WORK FLOW COLLABORATIVE FLOW all disicplines were asked to set there own paramters that might need parametrizing and that can affect the other disciplines and integrate withing their design. from these parameters we could sort down this flow chart that shows how the work is supposedly to flow between them during the project timeline, before and after the midterm. also there was the local workflow for the computational designer separetley by investigating further literature and possible design or computational based design options.

ARCHITECT

STRUCTURE DESIGNER

CLIMATE DESIGNER

FACADE DESIGNER

COMPUTATIONAL DESIGNER

computational work was mainly divided in 3 disciplines and indirect interacyion with climate after mass generation

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WORK FLOW DIGITAL FLOW digitally we had two core models, one file for rhino which had only the site and form generation requirments layers. while each disipline used worksession for integrating what the rest of the team is done with. the architect and the climate designers used Revit in the last weeks for further architecture detailing and HVAC design respectively. this alos was managed by transfering the latest version of work each week as a DWG file to be integrated in the master core model as a reference for the rest of the disciplines. one grasshopper file was also set to be used by the team. and it was weekley - sometimes less- updated. this file integrated architecture mass generation, structure design, climate analysis and lastly the facade panelling.

one weekly updated grasshopper file includes all disciplines work in grasshopper or rhino

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WORK FLOW DATA EXCHANGE the digital work flow if not set correctly might cause mess in the workflow and data exchange. by setting the frame of the digital flow it saves alot of time in terms of organization and more time focused on the work. uisng google drive for file sharing we had a template for each folder and even a naming system for the different files which was further explained to the team. during the first days we had to know each one’s software skills and needed softwares for each discipline. by creating a software inventory with links to download pages, tutorials and what it needs to be used for, this eased the file transfer especially in grasshopper with multiple plugins flowing around in different disciplines.

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software inventory to ease files exchange from different plugins and softwares

google drive folder organization

file naming explained

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VOLUMES ZONNING SCHEMATIC DESIGN during the schematic design time, the architect decided on certain volumes’ numbers for the different programme functions. these volumes were parametrized in terms of height, width, and length of cubes that allow the architect to try different mass zonning. though the designed script allowed many possiblites of the volumes stacking and massing, the script didn’t go further after two weeks of the pin up presentation as the architect had more simple zonning that wasn’t complicated.

volumes estimations from the architect

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from top to bottom: parameters to controll the mass: postiiton in the land, height posoition, estimated volume from architect, length and width defines the height data that helps next to mass composition: volume, floor area, and height of the function.

different compositions can be further investigated to have the first mass of the tower

FORM GENERATION SCHEMATIC DESIGN the first mass generation depended on the architect proposal to have an initial volume and have some kinky projections on the upper floors. the mass was created within the land borders and then the initial creation polygon was modified to creat the kinks in the envelope the script allowed the architect to position the tower in the land and then control the envelope shaping using some sliders that controll all the initial polygon corners position. lastly the required subtraction volumes or cutters are introduced to create the envelope.

starting by a polygon

define certain cutters 16

control corner points position

mass is subtraction by cutters

extrude initial volume

by moving the building within the land and fixing the cutters or vice versa different options are generated

FORM GENERATION OBJECTIIVES

climate designer wanted to maximize the possible solar radiation that the orientation of the faces can achieve. by giving +-5 ° of freedom to the cutters planes this could be controlled. while facade main focus was to reduce the reflections on the surrounding context caused by thee mass as a mirror of glass to the surrounding.

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ITY

S EN

NT NER NI G

TIO DESI C E DE FL

RE FACA

VOLUME

the architect wanted to achieve the cutters and facet language in the mass while also maximizing the possible volume from the intial design. the starting point for the cutters was set by the architect own vision.

ARCHITECT

to make the mass more reasoned and achieve the integrity concept between all disciplines, objectives were set. all discilines were asked to write down therie objectives that could be achieved through the mass generation. these objectives were filtered together with each discipline and finalized to the shown objectives in the diagram.

SO

CL

LA

R

IMA RA TE DIA T DE SIG ION NE R

main objectives to shape the mass

S-E-W

FORM GENERATION REFERENCED CUTTERS the cutters were schematized in sketchup by the architect to have an initial sculpting of the mass. these cutters were then given 5 ° of freedom plus or minus to allow the cutters to create different mass. the cutters were insured to be planar to create a flat surface not nurbs or double curvy surfaces which will be against the concept of facet edgy envelope. some of the cutters were fixed to achieve ome certain architectural and structural reasons. for example the north and upper cutter in the last weeks of the project were not set within the optimization process which will be described later.

planarizing the cutters before using them for cut of the mass. and controlling the rotation of the cutters in 3d rotation

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+ 5° S-E-W Cutters

cutters perpare process for the form generation

FORM GENERATION SOLAR RADIATION solar radiation analysis was set using Ladybug plugin for grasshopper. by defining the project land coordinates from google maps, it was set as the location for the anlysis. sun vectors used were reduced for only the summer to allow fast analysis that was almost realtime which alows quick schematic decision making. the hours for the analysis dueing the 31 days of the months were the morining hours until 19 pm.

used sun vectors for solar radiation analysis were: Month: May, june and july days: 1- 31 hours: 10 am-19pm

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first solar radiation results from the analysis for different mass forms in almost realtime analysis as it was made as fast as possible by internalizing sun vectors and reducing resolution for the sake of adjusting it to the available machine

FORM GENERATION SOLAR REFLECTION to achieve the facade designer objective of reducing the reflections on the surrounding context, 3 steps were used in this process. by defining certain nodes in the surrounding context were the reflections are most likely to be reduced i.e: station exit, bike tunnel exit, groot handelsgebouw, train rails entreing the station, and the entrance to the street using cars and bus. then sun vectors are projected on the building and using ladybug raytrace component it was possible to trace the bounicing on the context. lastly the falling points of the reflections were calcualted inside the nodes(circles) to define the reflection intensity from different mass.

different sun vectors for solar reflection analysis were used and only from may to july were the final vectors to be used for the final mass optimization in octopus

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defining certain nodes that reflection matters most

sun vectors are bounced on and from the envlope

the reflection points intensity is calcualted

FORM OPTIMIZATION PROCESS SET in order to achieve the most out of the objectives set by architect, facade designer and climate designer, an optimization for the mass needed to be done. using Octopus an multi objective search and optimization plugin for grasshopper we were able to generte multiple mass options from which we could choose one to go further with more detailing and check for structure stability.

SCULPTED MASS

SOUTH CUTTER

OCTOPUS OPTIMIZATION

CUTTERS ROTATION ANGLES

SOUTH CUTTER 2 WEST CUTTER WEST CUTTER 2

OPTIMIZATION OBJECTIVES

EAST CUTTER EAST CUTTER 2 UPPER CUTTER

scheme of the octopus set in grasshopper for optimization of the mass acheiving all the disciplines objectives.

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MASS OPTIONS

SOLAR RADIATION REFLECTION INTENSITY MASS VOLUME

octopus multi objective search for optimization of the objectives. low mutation values were used due to the available machine abilites, yet we could have 50 different masses and make decisions accordingly.

FORM OPTIMIZATION INITIAL RESULTS the resultant mass options were recorded and the three main objective values were shown by the plugin in a 3 dimensional diagram on which each point represented a mass of the tower. these options were analyzed and from them one mass was choosen for further detialing with small adjustments.

intial optimization results showing the blue highlited as the best option achieving least reflection while has the most radiation and volume.

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first solar radiation results from the analysis for different mass forms in almost realtime analysis as it was made as fast as possible by internalizing sun vectors and reducing resolution for the sake of adjusting it to the available machine

FORM OPTIMIZATION FINAL RESULTS after major changes in the position and height of the tower and due to structural analysis forstability for previous optimzation result, new optimzation was run and the results were evaluated and proved to be sufficent structurally and objectivelly in the other disciplines.

final optimzaion results

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FORM OPTIMIZATION FINAL RESULTS the model had the set of information that are collected from within grasshopper model. these infromation are introduced before the mass optimization decision to be based on other functionality and programme based decisions by the team. finally the optimztion process included three steps, starting by evaluating the volume of the sculpted mass by the cutters, solar radiation analysis in parallel with the reflection intensity analysis.

final data of each model to be considered by the architect to achieve the required programme functions and areas.

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step 1 of generation solar radiation maximize

step 2 of generation solar refection minimize

step 3 of generation small adjustments and detailing

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STRUCTURE DESIGN DIAGRID SYSTEM the first trial for the structure design of the facet mass was to use mega structure. after structure analysis it was found out that mega structure doesn’t fit well for our building. this lead to try to create a diagrid over the whole envelope. the diagrid had to match over the envelope as wrapping the tower. by assigning the grid intersections to be starting on the floors’ slabs. controlling the diagrid spacing allows different options of diagrid sizes which can be further analyzed.

deppending on the floor slabs the grid height is decided.

separating the floors that will have the diagrid nodes.

separating each facade edges of the floor.

diagrid was only tested on an older version of the mass and then it was decided for the final mass to use tubular system

creating the diagrid structure over one facade.

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diagrid is ready for all systems controlled separetly only in width.

long face: 6.5 m width narrow face: 4m width height: 4 floors

long face: 8.5 m width narrow face: 7 m width height: 4 floors

long face: 10 m width narrow face: 10 m width height: 4 floors

long face: 15 m width narrow face: 20 m width height: 4 floors

long face: 6.5 m width narrow face: 4m width height: 2 floors

long face: 8.5 m width narrow face: 7 m width height: 2 floors

long face: 10 m width narrow face: 10 m width height: 2 floors

long face: 15 m width narrow face: 20 m width height: 2 floors

STRUCTURE DESIGN TUBULAR SYSTEM as the diagrid architecturally was not prefered cause it reduces the view form inside very much and also it blends the edges of the different faces in the enveliope. for these reasons structure had to look into using different structure system which was the tubular system. tubular system represented columns moving along the envelope was made by separating each facade. each facade had the projection of the columns divided over the bounding box of the tower. this allowed to adjust different spacing along the columns and try different structure analysis results. this system reduced the complexity of the structure as using the floor slabs as beams requires only columns.

faceted envelope requires system along the faces

creating bounding box over the mass

projecting columns over the face and cleaning certain small heights columns 38

dividing each face of the box in relation to the face that needs design

repeating for the rest of the faces indvidully controlled

grid size: 2.5 m

grid size: 3 m

grid size: 4.5 m

grid size: 8 m

grid size: 9 m

grid size: 10 m

grid size: 6 m

KARAMBA ANALYSIS TUBULAR SYSTEM after designing the script to allow exploring different grid sizes it was also the goal to prepare it for structural analysis using karamba plugin for grasshopper. the objective was to shatter all the created columns with the floor slabs to get all the exterior beams. also splitting the floor slabs with the core results in the nodes of the interior beams that hold the structure to the core. shown are some result s from the structure analysis done by the structure designers as a result of this work. which made it easier to make a dcision to use the grid size of 6m. this was analyzed again in more higher accuracy using GSA software by the strcture designers.

part of the preparation for the structure to be analyzed

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part of the structure analysis done by the structure designer for different grid sizes with and without the core

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FACADE PANELLING PANEL DESIGN the facade panel was designed to be easily adjustable in height and width as well as cantilever member location. the designed script allowed the facade designer to analyse differnt facade designs and configurations to achieve the best shading objectives. this resulted in the final pattern that was panellized afterwards.

control point

1/3 H

2/3 H DAYLIGHT ANALYSIS BEST PANEL RATIO

1/2 H

1/2 H

DIFFERENT OPTIONS

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SOLAR RADIATION ANALYSIS

ABOVE: FACADE SOLAR RDIATION ANALYSIS SAMPLE FROM FACADE DESIGNER WORK LEFT: FACADE CONCEPT

FACADE PANELLING LOCALIZING GRID each of the facade faces had different orientation angles in the world XYZ. by creating a grid of points that start from an origion point that is one of the face‘s corner points. this origin was also placed on the level of floor slaps that meet the face’s corner. all the grid lines and points were oriented to the face’s local plane. by remapping the points grid into two lists, it was possible to create a staggered grid of points. that represent the facade design pattern. the vertical grid lines and the horizontal staggered lines were trimmed by the facade face and then it was possible to start considering the facade grid sizes.

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creating a grid of points that controlls the grid size

the points are aligned with floors height and half of the floor height

z

x each face has inclined (A°) angle of the world XYZ

split the face with the vertical lines to allow the grid to be localized

creating a grid of points that controlls the grid size

vertical lines reprresent the width of the panel are created

stggered horizontal lines represents the height of the panel

finally spliting the vertical faces with staggered horizontal lines

FACADE PANELLING GRID SIZE After creating the grid lines, the next stage was to choose the best grid size. the grid size that achieves the least number of panel’s groups, highest ratio of similar panels and area is considered the best to go for. While each Face of the facade will have it’s unique grid size analysis that achieves the least local differentiality.

Max grid size width considerd was 1.5m which allows the facade to be produced by Shuco facade company production method. production exports an XML file for the CNC machine producing the panels frame.

The height of the panels H is determined by the floor height (F=4m) in relation to the inclination angle A of the Facade face from the world Z-axis using the formula H=F/cos(A) this allows the facade to be fixed on the floors slabs directly without any cumulative error due to the inclination angle of the facade face.

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F

H

w H=F/cos(A) W= parameter to change

choosen grid size 1.35 m

GRID SURFACES

FACADE PANELLING AREA

GROUPING PANELS Three Gates were set to sort the facade units according to their similarity or difference. these three gates represented the logical approach towards filtering the units.

DIFFERENT PANELS

SIMILAR PANELS

NUMBER OF EDGES

First Gate was the panel area. dispatching the units into the very common surface area of the grid size unit. this allows to separete the unique and trimmed panels on the face edges.

GROUP A

Second gate was to separte according to the number of edges for the panel. ranging from 3 to 5 edges for panels.

GROUP B

PERIMETER OF EDGES

Third gate was to find the identical panels in each group. this was not effective since the faces edges has different angles on each sides which makes it almost impossible to find two identicl panels.

DIFFERENT

UNIQUE

SIMILAR

GROUP A

DIMENSIONING

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GROUP B

FACADE PANELLING DIMENSIONING after separating the different panels , they were sorted according to their perimeter and area. outlined dimensions to make it easily readable for the sake of production sequnce in the facade production line in the factory.

XML files for the CNC machining of the similar panels could be produced using shuco parametric plugin for Grasshopper that allows to create the XML files for the facade 3d units. which gave us an insight into the real life production process.

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FACADE PANELLING DIMENSIONING

SORTING IN ORDER

sorting in order of area and perimeter in lists makes it easier to export dimensioned outlines of the panels frames this is a rough basic dimensioning as a base for the detailed dimensions. last two steps of the diagrams are not done but could be as a next step for the panelling algorithim

Area

&

perimeter

m2

m2

ORDER LIST

DETAILED DIMENSION

PRODUCTION LINE

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CONCLUSION REFLECTION working as a computational designer in a group of multi-disciplinary project, this gave me the opportunity to discover more into hwo each discipline is very related to all the other disciplines. one designer job could affect all the rest either negatively or positivily. this require good communication within the team as a softskills for communication but alos it requires a smooth flow of the data within the project. starting from the work flow as a computational designer I set all the digital flow of information starting from the naming of the files to make it easily exchangable between discipplines, sorting out the folders for online work on the google drive. but also creating the core model in grasshopper and rhino. during the early stage of design each of the designers were asked to put an overall paramters that might be helpful to parametrized. also the parametres tht might be affected and generated from the intial mass generation. that resulted in the objectives that lead to create the tower envelope.

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working with the architect side by side to generate the mass envelope at the early design stage integrating the facade and climate filtered objectives. afterwards, we ran an optimization for the mass usin multiobjective search and optimization plugin “Octopus”. this optimization was run before the midterm and also after the midterm with more adjustments and detailing separately in each discipline. secondly I was working with structure designers to develope a structural system script in grasshopper that allows to investigate and further analyze the possible options within each system. first we developed the diagrid system which due to architectural reasons was neglected. further more we developed the tubular system of columns and beams with core and prepared it for karamba analysis. lastly, while facade designer was detailing his approved facade panel design, I was responsible for panellizing the facade in order to optimize the production process for such a system on a faceted mass

envelope. a grasshopper script was developed in order to decide on the grid size of the system while also allowing to decide based on certain objectives. the least ratio of different facade panels of the total faces was considered better grid size. afterwards, the different or unique panells were grouped in terms of the number of area and number of edges respectivelly. grouping the facade panells was meant to further use Shuco plugin for grasshopper to produce XML files for the similar common panels which only was used to create the 3d models of the panels and couldn’t fix an error of the exporting of the XML files. to conclude, I had the opportunity to work on definign work flow digitally and collaborativelly within disiplines, be part of the form generation and optimization in early stages, create different structure systems and prepare it for analysis, and lastly optimizing the facade panelling grid and preparing it for production as a first step. finally if I had the chance to develope more on the project i would have worked more on the panelling

in terms of detailing for the edgy unique panells. also i would have the chance to try optimzing the climate designer’s HVAC system ducts and try to reduce the least duct lengths that achieve the least amount of energy loss and material used. finally, it was a really great ten weeks of intensive computational design that helped me further gain more knowledge in many aspects of how computational design can be a node for integrating all the architecture responsible disciplines.

APPENDIX OVAERALL SCRIPT

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FORM GENERATION

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CLIMATE ANALYSIS

FACADE PANELLING

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TUBULAR STRUCTURE

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DIAGRID structure

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