Factory in a Digital Model

Abstract

Façades within the building industry ore one the most important and expensive aspect of a project. They are the outer skin of a structure and are responsible for improving energy efficiency, while being both innovative and attractive. At the same time, façades need to accommodate requirements to withstand the outdoor environmental conditions.
To meet all of these requirements, there is need for designers to either have knowledge on the different subjects, such as human comfort, sustainability, stability, among others; or work together with different specialist to achieve an ideal design.

Following a traditional design process, once the conceptual design is defined it goes through an iteration process between designing and detailing before reaching the manufacturing stage. This process, even though is already considered within the planning of a building, is highly time consuming.

Considering this process, the idea of bringing the manufacturing knowledge into the early design stages to speed up the design process was taken into consideration. The idea of bringing the manufacturing knowledge upwards in the design process would help designers, focus only on designing, while the considerations for product availability and manufacturing possibilities are already taken into account.

On the other hand, the increasing use of parametric modeling to improve building solutions, has been a growing field. In regards to façade design, the inclusion of free form architecture in the building industry has pushed the need for innovative solutions. It has been proved in these projects that the use of parametric modeling highly increases the speed in which designs are developed. However, the need to adapt existing products and manufacturing techniques to these complex geometries, generates more iteration times and increases the costs of the final product.

Now, imagine that not only the available products are adapted to the conceptual designs proposed, but that these designs include from their conceptual stages knowledge acquired from previous experience. This would help avoid the iterations between designers and manufacturers, plus would improve the possibilities of generating a bigger amount of modularity in the design process.

With these considerations, the proposal for this project aimed to develop a proof of concept tool that would be capable of encoding a manufacturers knowledge in a digital model, and use it to design a façade that is almost ready to manufacture.
For this purpose, the knowledge and information from the façades manufacturer Vianen Kozijnen was used as base for the development of this tool.

Once this was established, the modelling phase for the façade design tool begun. Initially the input parameters were set, the knowledge is gathered from the company's input, allowing the designer to set up a model within the possibilities of the manufacturer. In the back end of the tool, the build-up of the main modular panel is generated. Four main variables were defined to generate the geometry of the panel and these are determined by the input parameters.

Next, with a finalized panel design, the testing phase is set in place. This phase was divided into two processes. First, the replication of the panel throughout an entire façade. This process begins with a conceptual shape that will be filled with the already designed panel. The results from this process determine the total amount of modular panels and the percentage and amount of customized panels needed.

Secondly, the panel is tested for Building Physics aspects relevant in early design stages, which for this case were daylight and sound proofing. The tool then with the geometrical parameters given, includes simulations for both daylight and sound proofing. The results obtained, give information on the performance of the design. For daylight simulations, the results given are for daylight autonomy and daylight factor; and for sound proofing the results obtained give information on the insulation value of the façade, sound proofing of the structure and typical sound proofing. Both results, are information that is useful during early design stages, and can help shape the final project.

To test the functionality of the tool, the Sluishuis building was taken as a case study and the tool was applied to design and test one of the façade surfaces of the building.

The results obtained through this case study led to conclude the feasibility of encoding manufacturing knowledge. It was determined that as a proof of concept approach the tool generates almost immediate results that include the knowledge needed for manufacturing. However, to be applied into a real project further improvements need to be made; with more focus on, first, being able to apply the tool to a completed building and secondly, include more manufacturers knowledge to generate a library of possibilities; making it useful in real life projects.