A parametric approach to the bioclimatic design of large scale projects: The case of a student housing complex

Advanced parametric processes enable the exploration of a wide range of design intentions and the generation of alternative project configurations. A novel parametric approach that integrates climatic and site data into a dynamic model of a large building project, to support architectural decisions in early design stages, is presented. Bioclimatic considerations that involve solar radiation analysis and computational fluid dynamic (CFD)-based wind flow simulations have been integrated into the parametric model, in order to explore the interaction of the geometry of the proposed buildings with the solar exposure and the prevailing winds in the area throughout the year. A new student housing complex on the campus of the University of Patras, Greece, was used as a test-bed for experimentation with the developed design algorithms that link local climatic data with the site topography and the basic geometric features of the buildings on the site. The parametric process and the design algorithms were particularly useful in the early design stage, during which various arrangements of the buildings on the site were studied, in order to optimize their environmental performance.