Nathan Brown

Nathan Brown
Pennsylvania State University | Penn State · Department of Architectural Engineering

PhD

About

73
Publications
27,074
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949
Citations

Publications

Publications (73)
Article
Automation, including the use of robots, is increasingly presented as a potential solution to the lagging efficiency of the construction industry. Buildings designed for robotic construction may be different than traditional buildings, and computation can help reveal these differences. In response, the goal of this research is to assess the challen...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
An Intensity measure (IM) characterizes the potential of a ground motion. As a representative of a waveform, the IM's relationship with the structural response of buildings is essential in reducing uncertainties when estimating the structural demand. The efficiency of an IM can be determined by its ability to predict the response of a building accu...
Article
Designing for 3D concrete printing presents unique challenges, particularly in vault manufacturing. There is also a lack of design support tools that consider structural performance during printing. This paper proposes a design workflow that includes form and toolpath generation, structural simulation, and optimization. The workflow is implemented...
Article
This paper advances computational design for 3DPC structures with a new design methodology that combines constrained design and parametric numerical modeling that performs the analysis layer by layer for a range of structures including overhangs. Early age buildability is studied in terms of plastic collapse, elastic buckling, and flexural collapse...
Article
Building designers are increasingly tasked with tracking and reducing the embodied carbon of structural systems, including concrete floor slabs. Design decisions that affect both the structural performance and the embodied carbon of a concrete floor are often made in the early design stages without complete structural analyses and life cycle assess...
Research
Full-text available
In this research, three-channel LED-augmented reality projector spectra were optimised for 24 colour samples using a brute-force (BF) and multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA). The BF search and MOGA performed similarly in achieving optimal results, reducing both light absorption and energy consumption by almost half. However, MOGA was 2.5 times...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Numerical analyses can aid design exploration, but there are several computational approaches available to consider design options. These range from “brute-force” search to optimization. However, the implementation of optimization can be challenging for the complex, time-intensive analyses required to assess seismic performance. In response to this...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Incorporating building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems at the urban level can reduce emissions and increase clean electricity generation. However, these systems face challenges in matching electricity demand and supply, particularly during peak demand. A proposed solution is optimizing the orientation of BIPV panels, but this can be challeng...
Article
Multi-objective optimization can enhance design quality through performance simulation. However, ease or efficiency of construction is also important, and optimization may lead to difficult-to-build designs. Early quantification of constructability would allow designers to balance performance and construction issues. While it is difficult to quanti...
Article
Full-text available
The design of buildings has become a complex and multidisciplinary problem involving multiple conflicting objectives as architects and designers address competing technical, economic, environmental, and societal concerns. This has been driving research in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) toward rigorous multidisciplinary decision-m...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
After the timid emergence of additive manufacturing at construction scale in the 1990s, the World has witnessed its exponential growth in recent years, both in academia and industry. Many of the companies operating today in this area were created as spin offs of research efforts of university labs. This is also the case of X-Hab 3D which is a spino...
Article
Full-text available
The carbon footprint of a concrete structure is directly affected by the selected concrete mixture proportions. To better understand the influence of different concrete mixtures, data was collected from Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). Data from 39,213 U.S.A. ready-mix concrete EPDs was obtained from public repositories provided by the Am...
Chapter
Both architects and engineers increasingly use design optimization in the early stages, but it is unclear how designers’ disciplinary background may influence their optimization strategies. In considering designs with multiple conflicting objectives, large datasets of options are often produced, which can be difficult to navigate. Architects and en...
Chapter
There has been recent interest in using sampled datasets of parametric models to create fast, accurate predictions of building performance. This rapid feedback can enhance creative processes in which a designer is exploring potential design options live, compared to waiting for the results of individual simulations for each design possibility. Howe...
Chapter
In recent years, researchers have focused on improving the design of building envelopes to enhance their environmental performance using kinetic systems, such as kinetic shading screens. Research has shown that these systems can effectively control and improve daylight illuminance in a room (Fiorito et al. in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Review...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Mass timber structural systems are increasingly used in the design of low and mid-rise buildings. One of the primary motivators for using mass timber structures is their low embodied carbon emissions (EC), which reduces a building’s carbon footprint. Despite this advantage, a criticism of mass timber structures in multi-story buildings is often poo...
Article
Full-text available
Increasingly, architects and building engineers use parametric modeling programs to explore design solutions as professionals and as students. However, little is known about their combined efficacy and exploration in these tools when working in mixed design teams. While disciplinarily diverse teams of designers have been shown to develop more creat...
Article
Full-text available
This study focuses on developing Machine Learning models based on CFD simulations to estimate hurricane induced vertical wave and surge forces on elevated coastal buildings caused by regular waves. In particular, this study aims at addressing the existing gap in designing elevated coastal buildings, which stems from lack of a generalizable equation...
Article
Full-text available
The dynamic response of building structures is an essential design consideration in building acoustics. However, building design is increasingly driven by sustainability goals. Floors can be optimized to reduce material consumption and corresponding carbon emissions, yet geometric changes may cause sound insulation and vibration problems. Although...
Article
Full-text available
Agent-based modelling (ABM) is a complex problem-solving approach that can be employed in early-stage parametric design, and certain design applications may benefit from such a bottom-up strategy. This research investigates the potential of ABM for structural design optimization. A case study of a form-found cantilevered truss is presented that has...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This project investigates the potential of immersive technologies to provide a new user experience (UX) for building design exploration. While interacting with an optimization process, users must often consider design options along with where such designs fit in the conceptual design space. Virtual reality (VR) can enhance designers' ability to vis...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The undulating ceiling in the lecture hall of Alvar Aalto's Viipuri Library was designed based on ray-tracing drawings to estimate the acoustic performance. This is an example of graphical analysis that was more common before computers. However, recent research has questioned Aalto's original acoustical claims. While computational methods might pro...
Article
Full-text available
Providing pedestrian accessibility to urban services is a big challenge and a key factor in creating more walkable urban areas. Moreover, it is a critical aspect of climate-resilient urban planning as it is broadly assumed that neighborhoods with greater walkability discourage automobile use and reduce CO2 emissions. The idea of 15-minute cities, d...
Article
Parametric design and optimization studies have demonstrated high energy savings for dynamic building envelope materials compared to static high-performance envelopes. However, most parametric studies about dynamic buildings were conducted on prototypical buildings with a focus on either optimal geometric settings or idealized material property cha...
Article
Improved computational modeling capabilities enable building designers to evaluate the acoustic performance of a design prior to construction. Using simulation to evaluate a range of potential solutions can help identify the best performing options before expending resources on building construction or before physical testing and fabrication of com...
Chapter
Artificial intelligence is increasingly being adopted to optimize, simplify, and extend operations in various areas of knowledge. Over the years, AI has been defined in many distinct but connected ways, encompassing different subfields and methods. Although in recent years, AI has been equated with machine learning, this chapter explores another AI...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This paper presents an optimization-based calibration process for tuning a digital formfinding algorithm used with knitted textile materials in architectural tension structures. 3D scanning and computational optimization are employed to accurately approximate a physical model in a digital workflow that can be used to establish model settings for fu...
Conference Paper
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In the early education of engineers, training for qualitative decision-making is often foregone in pursuit of numerical goals, especially when teaching analysis is prioritized over design synthesis. However, curriculums that teach parametric and computational optimization techniques can incorporate abstract thinking about intangible design possibil...
Article
Full-text available
Designing urban areas that provide smaller distances to their amenities is a key factor toward more walkable environments. Moreover, this is a critical aspect of climate-resilient urban planning since it is broadly assumed that areas with greater walkability discourage automobile usage and reduce CO2 emissions. Generative and data-driven design app...
Conference Paper
Light absorbed by sensitive artwork may cause irreversible damage. Optimising the spectral power distribution of light sources to minimise absorbed light can reduce damage while maintaining the colour appearance of artwork. Previous absorption minimisation studies used optimisation methods without comparing their performance. Here, three channel RG...
Article
Full-text available
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an unprecedented global event that has been challenging governments, health systems, and communities worldwide. Available data from the first months indicated varying patterns of the spread of COVID-19 within American cities, when the spread was faster in high-density and walkable cities suc...
Article
Full-text available
In many buildings, structural concrete systems have a large impact on the building's overall weight, embodied energy, and embodied carbon. Efficient structural components could result in building weight reductions, leading to material savings and a reduced carbon footprint. Shaping of concrete slabs through structural optimization has recently seen...
Presentation
No PDF available ABSTRACT Although architectural acoustic design solutions have existed for many centuries, modern advances in material science and construction technology have allowed new possibilities in terms of cost, environmental impact, or systems integration. One design approach with significant architectural potential is to use porous concr...
Chapter
Windows not only mediate thermal transfer, light transmission, noise control, and natural ventilation but also serve as an architectural element affecting a structure’s aesthetics and appearance. Since the glazed window was first developed in Egypt in 100 AD, the thermal and optical performance of windows have been primary concerns for architects,...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This study characterizes the efficacy, process, and confidence of homogeneous (architect-architect or engineer-engineer) and heterogeneous (architect-engineer) design teams when working together towards a conceptual design. The two professions have different design values which can include spatial aesthetics for architects and structural efficiency...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Sustainable design solutions are necessary to reduce the embodied carbon in building structural systems. Novel shaped concrete systems could reduce the amount of structural material, and therefore the amount of embodied carbon in a building. To further investigate the viability of shaped concrete systems, a comprehensive baseline study of existing...
Conference Paper
Technological advancements in computational building modeling have enabled designers to conduct simulations at the component level. With the evolution of parametric modeling, designers can evaluate multiple design options and identify the best performing solutions before expending resources on physical testing and eventual construction. However, to...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Despite growing interest in using machine learning to predict performance in conceptual design, questions remain about which types of design data are useful, and how it might be reused for future designs. This paper investigates the influence of different building data inputs on surrogate model accuracy for predicting the embodied carbon in tall ti...
Article
This paper reviews and extracts lessons from historic buildings, whose stability relies mainly on compression to resist gravity loads, that can inform the construction of affordable housing and shelters using 3D printed concrete without reinforcement and formwork. The first part consists of a literature survey of historic constructions with systems...
Article
Thermal comfort is a critical component of indoor environments, especially in schools where learning is the main objective. However, thermal comfort comes at a price that many schools are unable to afford. Therefore, it is critical to determine a method to lower the energy costs of a building while still maintaining occupant thermal comfort. The ob...
Article
This paper describes a parametric framework for early-stage tall timber design, which enables a comparison across a range of geometries with respect to embodied carbon of the main structural elements for two mass timber structural systems: post-beam-panel and post-and-platform. This research finds that the post-beam-panel system on average has a hi...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This paper investigates computational optimization techniques at the urban design scale, aiming to improve the performance of urban fabric layouts according to predefined evaluation metrics. To this end, this work addresses the use of optimization tools in urban design by comparing various optimization algorithms for generating urban fabrics with i...
Conference Paper
Computational tools have become integrated into design practice at the building scale and component scale. While there has been a resurgence of optimization techniques in room acoustics, research has been limited on utilizing optimization techniques on building components, such as a building’s structural floor. Quality design solutions must be foun...
Article
Designers in architecture and engineering are increasingly employing parametric models linked to performance simulations to assist in early building design decisions. This context presents a clear opportunity to integrate advanced functionality for engaging with quantitative design objectives directly into computational design environments. This pa...
Article
No PDF available ABSTRACT Computational tools have become integrated into design practice at the building scale and component scale. While there has been a resurgence of optimization techniques in room acoustics, research has been limited on utilizing optimization techniques on building components, such as a building's structural floor. Quality des...
Article
Various interactive optimization techniques have been proposed to simultaneously consider quantitative and qualitative goals in conceptual architectural design. However, more research is required to understand the effects of these techniques on design processes and outcomes at the building scale, when substantial building performance simulations ar...
Thesis
Previous research has developed optimization strategies to handle such multi-objective scenarios, but opportunities remain to further adapt optimization for the creative task of early building design, including increasing its interactivity, flexibility, accessibility, and ability to both support divergent brainstorming and enable focused performanc...
Article
Many architectural designers recognize the potential of parametric models as a worthwhile approach to performance-driven design. A variety of performance simulations are now possible within computational design environments, and the framework of design space exploration allows users to generate and navigate various possibilities while considering b...
Article
To be useful for architects and related designers searching for creative, expressive forms, performance-based digital tools must generate a diverse range of design solutions. This gives the designer flexibility to choose from a number of high-performing designs based on aesthetic preferences or other priorities. However, there is no single establis...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Many recent contributions in computational structural design have argued that design quality can be improved when performance feedback and guidance are part of the conceptual design process. However, the effect of multi-objective feedback and guidance tools has not been studied extensively. This paper presents the results of an educational study th...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In conceptual building design, an architect must simultaneously consider a variety of design objectives, including structural efficiency, total energy usage, and aesthetic expression. Multi-objective optimization (MOO) has been demonstrated to adequately account for designers’ needs and guide them towards high performing solutions early in the desi...
Article
Full-text available
This paper addresses the potential of multi-objective optimization (MOO) in conceptual design to help designers generate and select solutions from a geometrically diverse range of high-performing building forms. With a focus on the long span building typology, this research employs a MOO approach that uses both finite element structural modeling an...
Article
Full-text available
This paper explores the use of data-driven approximation algorithms, often called surrogate modeling, in the early-stage design of structures. The use of surrogate models to rapidly evaluate design performance can lead to a more in-depth exploration of a design space and reduce computational time of optimization algorithms. While this approach has...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
For most traditional applications of structural optimization and form finding for conceptual design, it is possible to pursue a single objective to arrive at an efficient, expressive form. However, when developing a modern building, the design team must consider many other aspects of performance, such as energy usage, architectural quality, and con...

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