Evolutionary algorithms as a method for developing architecture design

Author(s)

Jarryer Andrade de Martino

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo
• Defense date: 2015-02-25

Examining board members

Maria Gabriela Caffarena Celani; Daniel de Carvalho Moreira; Hélio Pedrini; Arivaldo Leão de Amorim; Daniel Ribeiro Cardoso

• Advisor: Maria Gabriela Caffarena Celani

Abstract

The architecture design is composed by different variables that need to be negotiated, some of them involve contradictory situations, increasing the complexity of the solution. The evolutionary algorithms are set by techniques that contribute to obtain solutions for this kind of problems, and they also may be incorporated in a project generative system in a way that potentiate the best results obtaining. For this it was necessary to understand the evolutionary theory and its main mechanisms, the structuring and implementation of evolutionary algorithms in computational environment, and the systematization of the design process as a base of an evolutionary design method development. Thus, it was important to define a theoretical framework from the main events and concepts related to the evolutionary theory, the evolutionary computation and to the discussion in the 1960s about the systematization of the design process as an operative sequence capable of registering the mental process of the designer and the evolutionary design method on architecture with their components and examples. Although this method had been implemented in architecture in the 1960s, its application was quite restricted to academic works development in some specific universities. The necessity of the knowledge of programming language, vocabulary, concepts and techniques from evolutionary computation made the implementation difficult as a project method in architecture and urbanism. Currently, there are digital resources that facilitate the method simplified implementation without losing its efficiency, justifying its resumption as a design method by architects and urban planners. Moreover, the objectives of this research were to organize the content about evolutionary algorithms, clarifying its structure, vocabulary, basic concepts and the involved mechanisms, to define its relationship with the architectural element and the project method, to identify a computational tool that facilitates the implementation and to present the real situations which architects can use them. As a result it was possible to validate that there is no difficulty in understanding the evolutionary algorithm as possible resource for the methodology development of a design, yet, the necessity to have more experience in the utilization of programming tool. This tool is not directly related to the evolutionary system, but with the algorithmic description through the computational implementation by any project codes (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/18112-7 - Evolutionary algorithms as a method for developing architecture design
• Grantee: Jarryer Andrade de Martino
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate