Creating ecologically sound buildings by integrating ecology, architecture and computational design

1. Research is revealing an increasing number of positive effects of nature for humans. At the same time, biodiversity in cities, where most humans live, is often low or in decline. Tangible solutions are needed to increase urban biodiversity. 2. Architecture is a key discipline that has considerable influence on the built-up area of cities, thereby influencing urban biodiversity. In general, architects do not design for biodiversity. Conversely, urban conservation planning generally focuses on the limited space free of buildings and does not embrace architecture as an important discipline for the creation of urban green infrastructure. 3. In this paper, we argue that the promotion of biodiversity needs to become a key driving force of architectural design. This requires a new multi-species design paradigm that considers both human and non-human needs. Such a design approach needs to maintain the standards of the architectural profession, including the aim to increase the well-being of humans in buildings. Yet, it also needs to add other stakeholders, organisms such as animals, plants and even microbiota. New buildings designed for humans and other inhabitants can then increase biodiversity in cities and also increase the benefits that humans can derive from close proximity to nature. 4. We review the challenges that this new design approach poses for both architecture and ecology and show that multi-species-design goes beyond existing approaches in architecture and ecology. The new design approach needs to make ecological knowledge available to the architectural design process, enabling practitioners to find architectural solutions that can facilitate synergies from a multi-species perspective. 5. We propose that a first step in creating such a multi-species habitat is the design of buildings with an ecolope, a multi criteria-designed building envelope that takes into account the needs of diverse organisms. Because there is no framework to design such an ecolope, we illustrate how multi-species design needs to draw on knowledge from ecology, as well as architecture, and design computation. 6. We discuss how architectures designed via a multi-species approach can be an important step in establishing beneficial human-nature relationships in cities, and contribute to human well-being and biodiversity conservation.Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog

Automation in Interior Space Planning: Utilizing Conditional Generative Adversarial Network Models to Create Furniture Layouts

In interior space planning, the furnishing stage usually entails manual iterative processes, including meeting design objectives, incorporating professional input, and optimizing design performance. Machine learning has the potential to automate and improve interior design processes while maintaining creativity and quality. The aim of this study was to develop a furnishing method that leverages machine learning as a means for enhancing design processes. A secondary aim was to develop a set of evaluation metrics for assessing the quality of the results generated from such methods, enabling comparisons between the performance of different models. To achieve these aims, floor plans were tagged and assembled into a comprehensive dataset that was then employed for training and evaluating three conditional generative adversarial network models (pix2pix, BicycleGAN, and SPADE) to generate furniture layouts within given room boundaries. Post-processing methods for improving the generated results were also developed. Finally, evaluation criteria that combine measures of architectural design with standard computer vision parameters were devised. Visual architectural analyses of the results confirm that the generated rooms adhere to accepted architectural standards. The numerical results indicate that BicycleGAN outperformed the two other models. Moreover, the overall results demonstrate a machine-learning workflow that can be used to augment existing interior design processes

Toward multi-species building envelopes: A critical literature review of multi-criteria decision-making for design support

<p>Rapid urbanization negatively affects the built and biotic environment, necessitating interdisciplinary mitigation strategies. Current nature-based solutions that are integrated into building envelope design have proved to be beneficial. These solutions, however, are primarily anthropocentric and often overlook the potential to support other living organisms, such as animals and microbiota. Thus, a multi-species approach is envisioned to facilitate more holistic envelope-design solutions. While integrating ecological knowledge into architectural design often introduces decision-making complexity, multi-criteria decision-making can support multi-species building envelope design. This paper reviews such decision-making applications in two domains: building envelope design and ecological planning design. Using a systematic literature review methodology to compile relevant publications for full-text analysis, the results show significant disparities between the two domains. This is primarily driven by decision-making applications, the scale of analysis, criteria typology and external decision-maker engagement. However, we identified opportunities to sequentially employ multi-objective optimization and multi-attribute decision-making to mitigate the technical differences and facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration. Finally, we discuss future developments using hybrid multi-criteria decision-making to facilitate better architectural and ecological computer-aided design.</p&gt

ECOLOPES, BEYOND GREENING. A multi-species approach for urban design

Urbanization, due to its contribution to climate change and loss of biodiversity, damages ecosystems, thereby affecting human health and well-being. Current urban and architectural design approaches, that aim to reduce the environmental impact of buildings, include, among other strategies, the integration of greening systems but focusing primarily on the potential benefits for humans. Other organisms such as animals and microbiota and the self-dynamic development of plant communities, which could play a central role in increasing biodiversity, are not considered in the planning process. This paper describes how the ECOLOPES project overcomes this strictly anthropocentric view, developing a systematic design approach for architecture in a multi-species perspective to create regenerative urban ecosystems

ECOLOPES

Urban areas are facing significant challenges regarding degradation of environments and ecosystems, species loss, and increased vulnerability to climate hazards, all of which impact negatively upon human health and well-being. Focusing on building envelopes can offer an effective approach to the regeneration of urban ecosystems, by providing new spatial opportunities in dense urban environments. The H2020 FET Open project ECOLOPES - ECOlogical building enveLOPES aims to develop a game-changing design approach for regenerative urban ecosystems. An Ecolope is a building envelope designed as a multi-species living space for four types of inhabitants: plants, animals, microbiota, and humans. ECOLOPES adopts a holistic multi-species approach, going beyond the provision of ecosystem services (i.e., benefits provided by nature to society and the economy). The goal is to develop the technology to plan and design urbanization with an integrated approach that addresses the requirements of the urban ecosystem. The paper presents an overview of the first steps towards this approach with focuses on data selection and integration, algorithmic modelling, and on developing an urban classification system that will be used for the project development