Michela Turrin

Delft University of Technology | TU · Department of Architectural Engineering & Technology

This paper discusses a novel, compact sound absorption solution with high performance at various frequencies, including low frequencies, achieved through the effective use of Computational Design and Additive Manufacturing (AM). Sound absorption is widely applied for reducing noise and improving room acoustics; however, it is often constrained by c...

Up to now, fabricating cast glass components of substantial mass and/or thickness involves a lengthy and perplex annealing process. This has limited the use of this glass manufacturing method in the built environment to simple objects up to the size of regular building bricks, which can be annealed within a few hours. For the first time, structural...

As technology advances, architects often employ innovative, non-standard shapes in their designs for the fast-growing number of high-rise buildings. Conversely, climate change is bringing about an increasing number of dangerous wind events causing damage to buildings and their surroundings. These factors further complicate the already difficult fie...

Architectural space layout has proven to be influential on building energy performance. However, the relationship between different space layouts and their consequent energy demands has not yet been systematically studied. This study thoroughly investigates such a relationship. In order to do so, a computational method was developed, which includes...

The increase in global population, which negatively affects energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and arable land, necessitates designing sustainable habitation alternatives. Self-sufficient high-rise buildings, which integrate (electricity) generation and efficient usage of resources with dense habitation, can be a sustainable solution for future urb...

The research focuses on optimising different zones of the Europoint complex in Rotterdam to achieve self-sufficiency in energy consumption and food production. For this reason, three buildings of the complex are parametrised in Grasshopper 3d Algorithmic Modelling Environment. The parametric models include various design variables related to the nu...

Numerous studies have shown that architectural design affects energy performance significantly. However, the effect of space layouts on building energy performance has not been fully analysed. In this paper, we aim to study the effect of space layouts on energy performance. An office building was used as the reference, and 11 layout variants were p...

Designing high-rise buildings is one of the complex tasks of architecture because it involves interdisciplinary performance aspects in the conceptual phase. The necessity for sustainable high-rise buildings has increased owing to the demand for metropolises based on population growth and urbanisation trends. Although artificial intelligence (AI) te...

High-rise building optimisation is becoming increasingly relevant owing to global population growth and urbanisation trends. Previous studies have demonstrated the potential of high-rise optimisation but have been focused on the use of the parameters of single floors for the entire design; thus, the differences related to the impact of the dense su...

This study proposes a voxel-based design approach based on the subtractive mechanism of shading envelopes and attributes information of point cloud data in tropical climates. In particular, the proposed method evaluates a volumetric sample of new buildings based on predefined shading performance criteria. With the support of geometric and radiometri...

Simulation-Based Multi-Objective Optimization (SBMOO) methods are being increasingly used in conceptual architectural design. They mostly focus on the solving, rather than the re-formulation, of a Multi-Objective Optimization (MOO) problem. However, Optimization Problem Re-Formulation (Re-OPF) is necessary for treating ill-defined conceptual archit...

This study proposes a voxel-based design approach based on the subtractive mechanism of shading envelopes and attributes information of point cloud data in tropical climates. In particular, the proposed method evaluates a volumetric sample of new buildings based on predefined shading performance criteria. With the support of geometric and radiometr...

The increasing population density in urban areas simultaneously impacts the trend of energy consumption in building sectors and the urban heat island (UHI) effects of urban infrastructure. Accordingly, passive design strategies to create sustainable buildings play a major role in addressing these issues, while solar envelopes prove to be a relevant...

During the early design process, simulations allow numeric assessment and 3D models allow visual inspection for qualitative criteria. However, exploring different design alternatives based on both is challenging. To support the design exploration of quantitative performance and geometry typology of various design alternatives during the early desig...

Additive manufacturing allows the fabrication of complex geometries with enhanced performances, making it interesting for application in façade components. Assessing the performance of non-standard geometries and 3D printed parts requires a combination of digital and analytical methods to retrieve validated models which can guide the design process...

Speech intelligibility is crucial in many spaces, yet designers often fail to predict the acoustic shortcomings of certain design choices. This paper builds on the potential of hybrid surface treatments showcasing low-frequency absorption to control background noise levels and high-frequency diffusion to improve speech-in-noise perception to introd...

Wind analysis for the structure of buildings is a challenging process. The increasing strength and frequency of wind events due to climate change only add higher demands. In addition, high-rise buildings are growing in number and include many of unconventional shape. Current methods used in practice for calculating structural wind response either d...

The research focuses on optimizing different zones of high-rise buildings in dense urban districts to improve the overall performance. For this reason, a hypothetical dense urban district is generated in Grasshopper 3d Algorithmic Modeling Environment in Rhino 3D. The models include various design variables depending on the facades type (quad grid...

As one of the most important design tasks of building design, space layout design affects the building energy performance (BEP). In order to investigate the effect, a literature review of relevant papers was performed. Ten relevant articles were found and reviewed in detail. First, a methodology for studying the effects of space layouts on BEP were...

Currently 40% of EU's final energy consumption is attributed to buildings. Achieving the EU's climate targets would entail improved strategies in designing nearly Zero Energy Buildings. This research aimed to create an integrated decision-making strategy in designing ZEBs with the use of multi-objective optimization of building design and construct...

As a passive design strategy, solar envelopes play a significant role in determining building mass based on desirable sun access during a predefined period. Nowadays, advancements in the area of computational tools permit designers to develop new methods for establishing solar envelopes. However, current approaches lack an understanding of the exis...

As a contextual and passive design strategy, solar envelopes play a great role in determining building mass based on desirable sun access during the predefined period. With the rapid evolution of digital tools, the design method of solar envelopes varies in different computational platforms. However, current approaches still lack in covering the de...

Urbanization and population growth lead to the construction of higher buildings in the 21 st century. This causes an increment on energy consumption as the amount of constructed floor areas is rising steadily. Integrating daylight performance in building design supports reducing the energy consumption and satisfying occupants' comfort. This study p...

Phase change materials (PCMs) are materials that can store large amounts of heat during their phase transition from solid to liquid without a significant increase in temperature. While going from liquid to solid this heat is again released. As such, these materials can play an important role in future energy-efficient buildings. If applied in facad...

Space layout design is one of the most important phases in architectural design, and current studies have shown that it can affect building energy performance. However, its influence has not been quantified. This paper aims at investigating the impact of space layouts on building energy performance. We use the floor plan of an office building in th...

This paper investigates a prospective application of point cloud data in supporting the contextual analysis of the built environment during the conceptual design process. Often, the complexity of site information causes architects to neglect several relevant properties that may affect environmental performance analysis, especially when dealing with...

Indoor multi-functional sports arenas are a complex building type. Integration of the (multi-) functional space and of the large-span structure of the roof mainly determines the overall geometry of the building, and is one of the most challenging phases of the design. Several interdisciplinary numeric assessments and numerous solutions with diverse...

Space layout design is one of the most important phases in architectural design, and current studies have shown that it can affect building energy performance. However, its influence has not been quantified. This paper aims at investigating the impact of space layouts on building energy performance. We use the floor plan of an office building in th...

High-performing architecture should be designed by taking into account the mutual dependency between the new building and the local context. The performative architecture plays an important role to avert any unforeseen failures after the building has been built; particularly ones related to the microclimate impacts that affect the human comfort. Th...

This study pre­sents a sys­tem­atic re­view and sum­mary of per­for­ma­tive com­pu­ta­tional ar­chi­tec­ture us­ing swarm and evo­lu­tion­ary op­ti­mi­sa­tion. The tax­on­omy for one hun­dred types of stud­ies is pre­sented herein that in­cludes dif­fer­ent sub-cat­e­gories of per­for­ma­tive com­pu­ta­tional ar­chi­tec­ture, such as sus­tain­abil­...

The utilization of point cloud as a 3D laser scanning product has reached across multi-disciplines in terms of data processing, data visualization, and data analysis. This study particularly investigates further the use of typical attributes of raw point cloud data consisting of XYZ (position information), RGB (colour information) and I (intensity...

The benefits of applying multi-objective optimization (MOO) in building design have been increasingly recognized in recent decades. The existing or traditional computational design optimization (CDO) approaches mostly focus on optimization problem solving (OPS), as they often conduct optimizations directly by assuming the optimization problems in q...

The prospective application of 3D laser data scanning provides numerous possibilities for investigating environmental performances for architectural design. One of the possibilities includes the practical usability of point cloud data in examining the existing environment. Exploiting this potential would help to increase the information on properti...

Innovatieve software komt regelmatig op de markt, maar Rhinoceros-Grasshopper heeft een compleet nieuwe wereld aan mogelijkheden ontsloten. Ook voor de bouwfysicus is dit zeer relevant. Doordat gebruik wordt gemaakt van een intuïtieve, parametrische en grafische programmeertaal, kunnen complexe geometrische problemen zeer snel worden gemodelleerd e...

Currently, several research projects investigate Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology as a possible construction method for future buildings. AM methods have some advantages over other production processes, such as great freedom of form, shape complexity, scale, and material use. These characteristics are relevant for façade applications, which d...

Technical requirements are sometimes seen as factors that limit creativity. However, they can also become drivers that help shape a design and become part of its identity. During the Double Face 2.0 project thermal, daylight and manufacturing performance aspects were such design drivers in the development of an innovative lightweight translucent Tr...

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology is currently being investigated as possible construction method for future buildings. AM methods have advantages over other production processes, such as great freedom of form, shape complexity, scale and material use. Because the freedom in geometric complexity applies also to the inner part of the products m...

The space layout design is one of the most important phases of the architectural design, and the automatic generation of space layout has shown great potential as a design aid. Research has shown that space layouts can have a significant impact on the improvement of energy performance. The combination of the automatic generation of space layout and...

Dealing with solar envelope analysis in architectural design becomes crucial feature because it gives an impact to the building performance analysis in the real environment. Various simulation tools were used by architects play a significant role in determining the design process. However, these tools were not yet confirming the expected performanc...

In order to reduce the energy demand of households, a new type of Trombe wall is being designed during a 'research through design project' called 'Double Face 2.0'. A Trombe wall is a passive system that reduces the energy demand of a building. In winter, it captures the heat from the sun during the day and releases this heat into the building at n...

The Double Face 2.0 research project aims at developing a novel type of an adaptive translucent Trombe wall. The novelty of the proposed system is based on the integration of new lightweight and translucent materials, used both for latent heat storage and insulation, advanced computational design processes, used to identify the relationship between...

The built environment is a complex system, contradictory, and constantly changing. It embodies the complex, historical evolution of human knowledge, desires and technology. Computer simulations enable designers to better respond to the increasing complexity of cities, buildings, and the lives of the occupants within them. Simulations support specif...

This paper presents a parametric approach to an integrated and performance-oriented design, from the conceptual design phase towards materialization. The novelty occurs in the use of parametric models as a way of integrating multidisciplinary design constraints, from daylight optimization to the additive manufacturing process. The work focuses on t...

The comparison of various competing design concepts during conceptual architectural design is commonly needed for achieving a good final concept. For this, computational design exploration is a key approach. Unfortunately, most of existing research tends to skip this crucial process, and purely focuses on the late-stage design optimization based on...

Spong3D is an adaptive 3D printed facade system that integrates multiple functions to optimize thermal performances according to the different environmental conditions throughout the year. The proposed system incorporates air cavities to provide thermal insulation and a movable liquid (water plus additives) to provide heat storage where and wheneve...

The design of sport buildings has great impact on top-sport as well as on recreational sport-activities. It implies challenging tasks in meeting the performance-requirements. This includes the control of factors like daylight/lighting, air flow, thermal conditions, just to name a few. Such factors impact the performance of athletes and are hard to...

Sound absorption systems are widely used for reducing noise and improving room acoustics. However, they are often constrained by conventional design and production techniques; and offer limited options for customising performance and form. Moreover, typical solutions are difficult to use for the damping of low frequencies due to their large size or...

Building performance simulations are usually time-consuming. They may account for the major portion of time spent in Computational Design Optimization (CDO), for instance, annual hourly daylight and energy simulations. In this case, the optimization may become less efficient or even infeasible within a limited time frame of real-world projects, due...

In large sport's buildings, a big part of energy can be saved by providing natural instead of mechanical ventilation. However, additional challenges arise while controlling airflow and temperatures in different zones. These measures highly depend on the shape, construction and ventilation openings, which are mostly decided in the early design stage...

Parametric modelling allows quick generation of a large number of design alternatives. Ultimately, it can be combined with optimization algorithms for obtaining optimal performance-driven design. However, setup of design space for optimization is a very complex task requiring designer's a priori knowledge and experience. Therefore, this paper focus...

We describe our work on providing support for design decision making in generative design systems producing large quantities of data, motivated by the continuing challenge of making sense of large design and simulation result datasets. Our approach provides methods and tools for multivariate interactive data visualization of the generated designs a...

The design of sun-shading systems for facades has a large impact on daylight control and on comfort in the built environment in general. Depending on different climates, functions and user preferences, it requires a variety of customized solutions. However, the current options for customization are limited due to restrictions in geometry and fabric...

Optimizing the acoustic environment of open plan offices is a complex task due to the large number of design parameters that must be considered. In current practice, acoustic analysis – even in a simplified form – is not naturally integrated into the design process of office spaces. Applying digital acoustic simulation in architectural design curre...

Measurements in the impedance tube are very useful as they enable the measurement of sound absorption for normal incidence sound. This paper discusses an experiment-based comparison of two measurement techniques in the impedance tube: the standing wave method and the transfer function method. The series of tested samples contain resonant absorbers...

In this paper we describe our work on providing support for design decision making in generative design systems producing large quantities of simulation data. The work is motivated by the continuing challenge of making sense of large design and simulation result datasets. Our approach is to provide methods and tools for multivariate interactive dat...

Focusing on large span structures for sport buildings, the paper tackles the role of parametric modelling and performance simulations, to enhance the integration between architectural and engineering design. The general approach contrasts post-engineering processes. In post-engineering, technical performances are considered in late stages of design...

Currently, in the conceptual envelope design of sports facilities, multiple engineering performance feedbacks (e.g. daylight, energy and structural performance) are expected to assist architectural design decision-making. In general, it is known as Building Performance Optimization in the conceptual architectural design phase. Essentially, it tends...

This paper discusses the potentials of achieving sound absorption of high performance by taking advantage of additive manufacturing. Sound absorbers are broadly utilised for noise reduction and the improvement of room acoustics. Despite the wide range of usage, sound absorbing technologies and materials are often constrained by conventional design...