Constraint-Based Design Formation - A Case Study of Wind Effects on High-Rise Building Designs

Abstract

The use of constraint-based knowledge assists designers in making well-informed decisions at different stages of digital design process. A constraint is conceived as a direct control on design formation, or as a filter which does not impose a control over a formation process. The paper aims to gain insights into the ways the designers manipulate constraints in the digital design process. It investigated whether the same type of buildings, designed by the same or different architects, presents different approaches to deal with the same constraint. Scenarios of handling a constraint using shaping and validation processes were identified before initial modelling, through modelling, and after modelling. Constraints can effectively participate in design formation by proposing a new shape or a typical shape at pre-modelling. They are refining or developing the initial design through modelling, and optimizing or enhancing the design after modelling. Furthermore, constraints play significant roles in the feasibility study of design solutions. This is done by evaluating the initial forms and selecting the fittest through modelling, in addition to testing and filtering the solution space after modelling, and approving the final design. The paper examined the impact of wind on the morphology of twelve contemporary tower designs. The findings support the opinion that constraints may not restrict the designer's free will, inspiration, and creativity. They revealed that different scenarios of wind-driven processes had implemented at different design stages even by the same designer. The wind constraint had a substantial impact on the derivation of new morphologies. Through modelling, it had an active role in the refinement of the initial architectural and structural design. Constraint-based design was handled in iterative processes of evaluating and developing or refining the initial forms through modelling; and optimizing or enhancing, testing, and approving the final forms after modelling.