WS 6 – AAG 2023 Stuttgart, 04 – 07 October 2023

Net-Zero Structural Design Using Synthetic Data. Generative structural design for rapid cost and embodied carbon evaluation

Erasmus Stillner — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 15:16:50 +0000

Net-Zero Structural Design Using Synthetic Data. Generative structural design for rapid cost and embodied carbon evaluation

WS 6

Type

Interdisciplinary exchange between the organizers and the workshop participants;
Masterclass style sessions, discussion sessions and presentations.
Working directly on the app development

Workshop objectives

collectively brainstorm with the wider AEC community, generating ideas and develop concepts that can be used to further improve the tool, to become a viable solution for architects and engineers alike to perform and evaluate early-stage structural design.

Participants requirements

Required skills:no prerequisites , however basic programming languages such as JavaScript and Python, as well as a working knowledge of Karamba3D, will be advantageous.
Required software: Visual Studio Code. Possibly Rhino/Grasshopper/Karamba3D
Required hardware: Laptop with Windows 10 or Later

Workshop description

Embodied carbon from building materials and construction accounts for 11% of the total global carbon emissions with a building’s superstructure being the most significant source. The building industry urgently needs to transition to carbon sequestering structural materials to meet UN climate targets. However, the time-intensive nature of structural design creates a significant bottleneck. In early design stages, sharp deadlines mean architects and engineers will likely stick to tried-and-tested, but environmentally harmful, options like steel and concrete. As a result, to speed-up adoption of more sustainable structural materials, like mass timber, early-stage structural design must be re-imagined.

We have developed a novel data-driven structural design process which leverages synthetic data generation, and machine learning predictions to meet this demand. This user-friendly design tool (https://co2-demo.app.bluefoam.io/ ) was the result of a research collaboration between Digital Blue Foam and Karamba3D in initiated at DigitalFUTURES 2022. The first prototype allows project stakeholders to quickly generate and compare structural design options and scenarios with respect to cost, embodied carbon and sequestered carbon.

The goal of the workshop is to collectively brainstorm with the wider AEC community, generating ideas and develop concepts that can be used to further improve the tool, to become a viable solution for architects and engineers alike to perform and evaluate early-stage structural design. The current ML model should be expanded to include larger datasets and more complex projects. Current limitations to the structural typologies selected also limit the potential of the tool, often taking a conservative. Through incorporating data from existing buildings or projects we can start to validate the machine learning model’s predictions and provide more accurate and relevant results. The participants of the workshop will learn how to generate and use synthetic structural data in machine learning based workflows.

Target group

Students and design professionals from AEC who are enthusiastic about methods to address the life cycle footprint of buildings in early stage design.

Number of participatns max.

Duration and Procedure

Day 1 (04.10.)

Morning

Introduction and outline of two days
Masterclass Session – Geometry & Structural Analysis
Brainstorm & Work Session – Geometry & Initial Structural concepts

Evening

Masterclass Session – ML & Datasets
Brainstorm & Work Session – Data Collection and ML Datasets
Intermediate presentation & discussion

Day 2 (05.10.)

Morning

Masterclass Session – UX and Tool functionality
Brainstorm & Work Session – Use case scenarios

Evening

Collation of findings and investigations
Final presentation & discussion

Workshop Media

Workshop chair/Lecturer(s)

Matthew Tam

Erasmus Stillner — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 14:15:18 +0000

Matthew Tam

Karamba3D | Bollinger+Grohmann

Matthew Tam is a computational designer based in Vienna, having studied architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, SCI Arc and University of Melbourne. He is core to the Karamba3D team, regularly holding workshops at conferences and institutions such as DigitalFUTURES, CAADRIA, AAG, Design Modeling Symposium, Smart Geometry and McNeel. Matthew works leads the Advanced Geometry department in Bollinger+Grohmann Vienna working at the interface of architectural, structural and computational design. He has previously taught the TU Innsbruck, TU Graz & Swinburne University of Technology.

https://www.karamba3d.com/

Aleksei Kondratenko

Erasmus Stillner — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 14:11:43 +0000

Aleksei Kondratenko

Digital Blue Foam

Aleksei is a passionate and efficient structural/earthquake engineer, aiming to use AI and Data Science to improve the sustainability of the AEC industry. He is currently working on a big variety of research projects in embodied carbon and AI topics at one of the best engineering universities in Europe. He participated in international conferences such as AI in AEC and DigitalFUTURES.

https://www.digitalbluefoam.com/

Maciej Nisztuk

Erasmus Stillner — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 07:08:13 +0000

Maciej Nisztuk

Digital Blue Foam

A researcher and designer with expertise in the fields of computational design and digital fabrication. He holds a PhD in Architecture from Wrocław University of Science and Technology (WUST) with a focus on automatic floor plan generation. He has gained extensive professional, research and teaching experience in the course of his interdisciplinary career cooperating with various design studios across Europe and having authored or co-authored several publications. He has been an organizer of the Shapes of Logic conferences (WUST) and has conducted multiple workshops in Wrocław on parametric design. He was a teacher at WUST and SWPS University in Wrocław. In 2017 he launched In Silico brand, 3D-printed jewellery inspired by biological forms and structures. He has received several awards in numerous design competitions.

https://www.digitalbluefoam.com/

Houssame Eddine H’sain

Erasmus Stillner — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 14:12:49 +0000

Houssame Eddine H’sain

Digital Blue Foam

Houssame is an architect, data scientist, and researcher. He is passionate about building and implementing data-intensive systems that assist in design and engineering decision-making in the AEC industry. He holds a master of science in Architecture from Bilkent University Graduate School of Engineering and Science, where he conducted research in applications of deep reinforcement learning to self-organized settlement growth modeling. His research projects are in the intersection of architecture, urban design and planning, and artificial intelligence.

https://www.digitalbluefoam.com/

Clemens Preisinger

Erasmus Stillner — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 14:14:05 +0000

Clemens Preisinger

Karamba3D | University of Applied Arts Vienna

Clemens Preisinger, D.I. Dr. is a structural engineer and researcher. He started his career as a researcher at the Institute for Structural Concrete at the Technical University Vienna. Since 2008 Clemens is working for the structural engineering company Bollinger+Grohmann. During that time, he contributed to several research projects at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. There he currently heads the department ‚Digital Simulation‘ which investigates possibilities to bring computational modelling techniques into early-stage architectural design. Since 2010 Clemens is developing the parametric, interactive Finite Element program ‘Karamba3D’ as a freelancer.

He holds a PhD in Structural Engineering from the Technical University Vienna. He has organised and lead numerous workshops at DigitalFUTURES, Design Modeling Symposium, Smart Geometry, AAG and McNeel.

https://www.karamba3d.com/