1. Introduction:
A detached garage unit was modelled to be flexibly dimensioned and shaped, while perserving a set of physical input parameters.
2. Design challenge, performance criteria and parameters:
Design challenge
The design challenge here is to achieve a model that is self adjusting to the design parameters especially the transmission value of the constructive walls given the materials, which could save the designers a lot of time. So based on the necessary shape of the roof which is often decided first according to the snow and wind loads, the necessary thickness of the concrete wall will be calculated. Afterwards, the necessary thickness of the insulation material is automatically calculated according to the necessary thermal transmission value of the wall.
Components
The Model consists of these components:
- The roof.
- The structural walls which carry the roof.
- The cover(s) which close the space from back and/or front.
Parameters
The model includes six decision parameters:
- W: Garage width.
- L: Garage length.
- H: Wall.Height.
- ϕ: Roof.Slope.
- U: U-Value of the walls (Thermal transmittance value).
- M: Insulation.Material.
High performance criteria:
The high performance criteria is the overall price of the system, as increasing the necessary U-value of walls will lead to increasing the price of the system.
3. Design space:
In addition to the adjustable Length, width and height of the garage here are some more alternatives that the parametric model allows. The slope can vary according to the designers wish between a flat roof and 35-degree sloped arc. A different U-Value and the selection of the insulation material lead to different thickness of the insulation layer of the constructive wall.
Download the parametric model:
3D View: