Immersive multi-performance parametric framework to enhance low-damage timber buildings design

In order to face the increasing challenges resulting from climate change and catastrophic events, the built environment has to deal with multi-performance requirements. The well-recognised dependency between seismic performance and environmental footprint calls for advanced technological solutions together with integrated (multi-)decision-making approaches, able to handle multiple and sometimes conflicting domains in building design. Combining sustainability with high seismic performance, the use of the timber low-damage post-tensioned structural system, also known as Pres-Lam, represents a viable strategy to design more resilient buildings. The components modularity enables also the proper adaptive capacity to meet changes in user demands over time. Nevertheless, to address the multiple potentials of this technology and to guide decision-makers towards the optimal solution, an integrated building design methodology is needed. Such an approach inherently leads to Multi-Objective Optimization (MOO) problems due to the conflictual nature of the goals involved. This paper proposes a parametric framework for the multi-performance optimization and evaluation of adaptive Pres-Lam buildings, through a comprehensive model within the Rhino-Grasshopper platform. The MOO is carried out through the evolutionary algorithm inside the Octopus component for Grasshopper. The aim is to reduce embodied and operational carbon emissions, while ensuring the proper seismic capacity of the post-tensioned timber frames and the maximum flexibility of the internal space. The effective seismic performance of the selected Pareto optimal solutions is then assessed through a probabilistic approach. Besides the use of a multi-comprehensive and easy-to-handle model, visualization plays an important role in building design. In this respect, architectural modelling radically evolved over the last decades towards increasing use of Virtual Reality (VR) along the design process. Despite this, VR is mostly used for the end visualization of 3-dimensional software-based models. This study aims to address the challenge of bringing the parametric modelling capability of Grasshopper within the immersive environment of VR. The designer has thereby the chance to directly modify the calculations input from within and to have real-time feedback of the model generated by the multi-performance integrated framework for low-damage timber buildings.