Multicriteria Optimization of Paneled Building Envelopes Using Ant Colony Optimization

Abstract

Definition of building envelopes is guided by a large number of influences including structural, aesthetic, lighting, energy and acoustic considerations. There is a need to increase design understanding of the tradeoffs involved to create optimized building envelope designs considering multiple viewpoints. This paper presents a proof-of-concept computational design and optimization tool aimed at facilitating the design of optimized panelized building envelopes for lighting performance and cost criteria. A multicriteria ant colony optimization (MACO) method using Pareto filtering is applied. The software Radiance is used to calculate lighting performance. Initial results are presented for a benchmark and project-motivated scenario, a media center in Paris, and show that the method is capable of generating Pareto optimal design archives for up to 11 independent performance criteria. A preliminary GUI for visualizing the Pareto design archives and selecting designs is shown. The results illustrate that for desired values of lighting performance in different internal spaces, there is often a range of possible panel configurations and costs.