866 research outputs found
Evolutionary design assistants for architecture
In its parallel pursuit of an increased competitivity for design offices and more pleasurable and easier workflows for designers, artificial design intelligence is a technical, intellectual, and political challenge. While human-machine cooperation has become commonplace through Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools, a more improved collaboration and better support appear possible only through an endeavor into a kind of artificial design intelligence, which is more sensitive to the human perception of affairs.
Considered as part of the broader Computational Design studies, the research program of this quest can be called Artificial / Autonomous / Automated Design (AD). The current available level of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for design is limited and a viable aim for current AD would be to develop design assistants that are capable of producing drafts for various design tasks. Thus, the overall aim of this thesis is the development of approaches, techniques, and tools towards artificial design assistants that offer a capability for generating drafts for sub-tasks within design processes. The main technology explored for this aim is Evolutionary Computation (EC), and the target design domain is architecture. The two connected research questions of the study concern, first, the investigation of the ways to develop an architectural design assistant, and secondly, the utilization of EC for the development of such assistants.
While developing approaches, techniques, and computational tools for such an assistant, the study also carries out a broad theoretical investigation into the main problems, challenges, and requirements towards such assistants on a rather overall level. Therefore, the research is shaped as a parallel investigation of three main threads interwoven along several levels, moving from a more general level to specific applications. The three research threads comprise, first, theoretical discussions and speculations with regard to both existing literature and the proposals and applications of the thesis; secondly, proposals for descriptive and prescriptive models, mappings, summary illustrations, task structures, decomposition schemes, and integratory frameworks; and finally, experimental applications of these proposals. This tripartite progression allows an evaluation of each proposal both conceptually and practically; thereby, enabling a progressive improvement of the understanding regarding the research question, while producing concrete outputs on the way. Besides theoretical and interpretative examinations, the thesis investigates its subject through a set of practical and speculative proposals, which function as both research instruments and the outputs of the study.
The first main output of the study is the âdesign_proxyâ approach (d_p), which is an integrated approach for draft making design assistants. It is an outcome of both theoretical examinations and experimental applications, and proposes an integration of, (1) flexible and relaxed task definitions and representations (instead of strict formalisms), (2) intuitive interfaces that make use of usual design media, (3) evaluation of solution proposals through their similarity to given examples, and (4) a dynamic evolutionary approach for solution generation. The design_proxy approach may be useful for AD researchers that aim at developing practical design assistants, as has been examined and demonstrated with the two applications, i.e., design_proxy.graphics and design_proxy.layout.
The second main output, the âInterleaved Evolutionary Algorithmâ (IEA, or Interleaved EA) is a novel evolutionary algorithm proposed and used as the underlying generative mechanism of design_proxybased design assistants. The Interleaved EA is a dynamic, adaptive, and multi-objective EA, in which one of the objectives leads the evolution until its fitness progression stagnates; in the sense that the settings and fitness values of this objective is used for most evolutionary decisions. In this way, the Interleaved EA enables the use of different settings and operators for each of the objectives within an overall task, which would be the same for all objectives in a regular multi-objective EA. This property gives the algorithm a modular structure, which offers an improvable method for the utilization of domain-specific knowledge for each sub-task, i.e., objective. The Interleaved EA can be used by Evolutionary Computation (EC) researchers and by practitioners who employ EC for their tasks.
As a third main output, the âArchitectural Stem Cells Frameworkâ is a conceptual framework for architectural design assistants. It proposes a dynamic and multi-layered method for combining a set of design assistants for larger tasks in architectural design. The first component of the framework is a layer-based, parallel task decomposition approach, which aims at obtaining a dynamic parallelization of sub-tasks within a more complicated problem. The second component of the framework is a conception for the development mechanisms for building drafts, i.e., Architectural Stem Cells (ASC). An ASC can be conceived as a semantically marked geometric structure, which contains the information that specifies the possibilities and constraints for how an abstract building may develop from an undetailed stage to a fully developed building draft. ASCs are required for re-integrating the separated task layers of an architectural problem through solution-based development. The ASC Framework brings together many of the ideas of this thesis for a practical research agenda and it is presented to the AD researchers in architecture.
Finally, the âdesign_proxy.layoutâ (d_p.layout) is an architectural layout design assistant based on the design_proxy approach and the IEA. The system uses a relaxed problem definition (producing draft layouts) and a flexible layout representation that permits the overlapping of design units and boundaries. User interaction with the system is carried out through intuitive 2D graphics and the functional evaluations are performed by measuring the similarity of a proposal to existing layouts.
Functioning in an integrated manner, these properties make the system a practicable and enjoying design assistant, which was demonstrated through two workshop cases. The d_p.layout is a versatile and robust layout design assistant that can be used by architects in their design processes
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From 3D Models to 3D Prints: an Overview of the Processing Pipeline
Due to the wide diffusion of 3D printing technologies, geometric algorithms
for Additive Manufacturing are being invented at an impressive speed. Each
single step, in particular along the Process Planning pipeline, can now count
on dozens of methods that prepare the 3D model for fabrication, while analysing
and optimizing geometry and machine instructions for various objectives. This
report provides a classification of this huge state of the art, and elicits the
relation between each single algorithm and a list of desirable objectives
during Process Planning. The objectives themselves are listed and discussed,
along with possible needs for tradeoffs. Additive Manufacturing technologies
are broadly categorized to explicitly relate classes of devices and supported
features. Finally, this report offers an analysis of the state of the art while
discussing open and challenging problems from both an academic and an
industrial perspective.Comment: European Union (EU); Horizon 2020; H2020-FoF-2015; RIA - Research and
Innovation action; Grant agreement N. 68044
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Socio-material constructs of domestic energy demand: Household and housing practices in Pakistan
Domestic energy demand in the Global South is predicted to grow to nearly three times that of the
developed nations by 2040, under rapid urbanisation, economic development and the emergence of a new, high-consuming middle-class. Current energy policy, with its largely technological template and economic focus fails to address the ways of living and patterns of demand that emerge and evolve as a result of the specific socio-material and cultural contexts that underpin how the need for energy arises and evolves. This research adopts a socio-technical perspective to explore various nexuses of practices and spatial arrangements of urban housing that have emerged, persisted and transformed over time, giving rise to unsustainable levels of electricity consumption in middle-class housing in Lahore, Pakistan. It further investigates how household practices fit within the wider system of housing practices and how this can inform low-energy interventions in house design and use.
The research combines practice theories from the social sciences with architectural knowledge of spatial agency to explore the interlinked social and material structures that form domestic electricity demand. This is achieved through a mixed-methods approach including semi-structured interviews with homeowners and housing practitioners, cross-cultural comparative analysis, house case-studies, oral history narratives, environmental monitoring, spatiotemporal mapping of household practice-arrangements through time-use diaries as well a detailed review of archival documents relating to building regulations and house plans.
The study highlights the significance of local socio-material and cultural context in everyday household practices and resulting electricity demands. It reveals that understanding the longitudinal dynamics of practice-arrangements and their diversity in cross-cultural contexts can help identify and prevent normalisation of unsustainable configurations that gradually become embedded in social structures and practices. It shows how a shift from outdoor to indoor activities, transformation from inward- to outward-oriented design and a spatial dispersion of practices have resulted in increased household electricity consumption. It further highlights the implications of cross-cultural transfer of technology and demand response strategies that are bound by local socio-cultural and material dynamics in the performance, bundling and synchronisation of practices. The study makes the connections between âgoodâ and âbadâ housing and household practices visible and identifies various energy transitions needed in housing practices that, through interventions in house design, can lead to less energy intensive household practice-arrangements.Cambridge Commonwealth, European and International Trus
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