Co-evolutionary Spatial-Structural Building Design Optimisation Including Facade Openings

Within co-evolutionary building design simulations, a spatial design can be automatically transformed into a structural design, and its structural performance can lead to modifications of the spatial design, after which a new cycle starts. This paper presents two procedures to include facade openings in these simulations, to allow for future simulations that include lighting. The first procedure reassigns a fixed pattern of facade openings to the spatial design each cycle, whereas the second procedure only assigns a pattern at the start, and modified spaces inherit their openings. For structural peformance, it is concluded that deterministic vertical opening patterns, with a low facade opening ratio, lead to a reduction of the number of stories, and consequently optimise the structural design. Also, it is shown that the first procedure maintains facade opening ratios during simulations, whereas the second procedure leads to decreasing openness, and more unconnected spaces. As such the first procedure is considered for an upcoming project, where spatial-structural-thermal-lighting building optimisation is investigated, including non-rectangular spatial designs.