Shervin Azadi

• Researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology

Urban Digital Twins (UDTs) have emerged as integrated collections of urban data and urban models aspiring to enhance urban planning and decision-making processes. However, current UDTs often fail to connect siloed disciplines, represent diverse stakeholder views, or adapt to the dynamic nature of planning processes. Realizing UDTs potentials is hin...

Highlights What are the main findings? The large gap between ambitions of Urban Digital Twins (UDTs) and their realized contributions is due to the lack of addressing socio-technical complexities. There is a shift in academic literature toward a socio-technical understanding of UDTs. What are the implications of the main findings? A socio-technica...

Urban Digital Twins (UDTs) were first discussed in 2018. Seven years later we ask: What has been their contribution to urban planning and decision-making so far? Here, we systematically review 84 peer-reviewed articles to map and compare UDTs’ ambitions with their realized contributions. Our results indicate that despite the vast technical developm...

This paper presents a novel algebraic workflow for topological voxelization of spatial objects, construction of voxel connectivity graphs & hyper-graphs, and derivation of partial differential and multiple integral operators. Discretization of models of spatial domains is central to many analytic applications in such application areas as medical im...

We propose a mathematical framework for developing social-choice games that are designed to mediate decision-making processes for city planning, urban area redevelopment, and architectural configuration of urban housing complexes. The proposed framework features a digital serious gaming approach for participatory design to support transparency and...

How can we assess the ergonomic comfort of a sizeable spatial configuration such as the indoor space of a complex building or an urban landscape when we design, plan, and manage the space? Is there a fundamental difference between indoor [architectural] spatial configurations and outdoor [urban] spatial configurations with respect to ergonomics? Ca...

This chapter presents methodological reflections on the necessity and utility of artificial intelligence in generative design. Specifically, the chapter discusses how generative design processes can be augmented by AI to deliver in terms of a few outcomes of interest or performance indicators while dealing with hundreds or thousands of small decisi...

The paper entitled Voxel Graph Operators: Topological Voxelization, Graph Generation, and Derivation of Discrete Differential Operators from Voxel Complexes has the following highlights: * a novel algebraic, topologically accurate, and efficient methodology (new algorithms) for voxelization of geometric data, spatial indexing, graph construction,...

We present a multi-actor interactive framework for collaboratively forming multi-functional urban building complexes, e.g. in the context of mixed-use housing developments. We propose mechanisms for a mathematical social-choice game that is designed to mediate decision-making processes for city planning, urban area redevelopment, and architectural...

The future is urban and urban problems are complex. Complex problems can be structured through explicit problem formulations. However, strategic urban planning problems have proved to be wicked or ill-structured: i.e. evading formulation. In this paper, we outline Augmented Urban Planning (AUP): an urban planning framework augmented with formal rep...

This chapter provides a methodological overview of generative design in architecture, especially highlighting the commonalities between three separate lineages of generative approaches in architectural design, namely the mathematical optimization methods for topology optimization and shape optimization, generative grammars (shape grammars and graph...

With the advent of Computer-Aided Design, the design and fabrication of complex free-form shells have become easier to achieve. However, this results in extensive usage of custom-made formworks for the production of shell components and falseworks which provide support for the shell during the construction process. Therefore, a modular design metho...

Our approach to Generative Design converts the problems of design from the geometrical drawing of shapes in a continuous setting to topological decision making about spatial configurations in a discrete setting. The paper presents a comprehensive formulation of the zoning problem as a sub-problem of architectural 3D layout configurations. This form...

A guest lecture for the Pixel Planet MSc1 Design Studio of The Why Factory: From XXS to XXL a fully modular and adaptable world

The paper presents open-source computational workflows for assessing the "Exposure to sunlight" and "View out" criteria as defined in the European standard EN 17037 "Daylight in Buildings", issued by the European Committee for Standardization. In addition to these factors, the standard document also addresses daylight provision and protection from...

In contrast to the contemporary aesthetic account, Muqarnas are geometrically complex variations of Squinches used for structural integration of rectilinear geometries and curved geometries. Inspired by the historical functionality of Muqarnas, we present a generalized computational workflow for generating dry-fit stacking modules from two-dimensio...

We present a modular generative design framework for design processes in the built environment that provides for the unification of participatory design and optimization to achieve mass-customization and evidence-based design. The paper articulates this framework mathematically as three meta procedures framing the typical design problems as multi-d...

Hospital facilities are known as functionally complex buildings. There are usually configurational problems that lead to inefficient transportation processes for patients, medical staff, and/or logistics of materials. The Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) is a well-known problem in the field of Operations Research from the category of the facility...

A position paper on generative design in architecture. This is the author version of a paper with the same title and content published in the BouT Rumoer: periodical for the Building Technologist; No. 76:Generative Design pp.7-16. https://issuu.com/rumoer/docs/issue_number_76_digital_edition

These are the slides of a lecture given at the Open Building Now! 2.0 symposium. https://www.openbuilding.co/open-building-now-2-2021 A recording of this lecture is available at https://youtu.be/51HcapJ5w34

The paper reports the formulation, the design, and the results of a serious game developed for structuring negotiations concerning the redevelopment of a university campus with various stakeholders. The main aim of this research was to formulate the redevelopment planning problem as an abstract and discrete decision-making problem involving multipl...

This article explains the motivation and the theoretical underpinnings of a master's level course on generative design for earth and masonry architecture.

The particular combination of the images, titles and the teaching method are all the intellectual properties of the author and are shared with the CC-BY License.

Building optimal free-form compression-only adobe shells requires sophisticated molds, scaffolding, critical supervision and an expert labor force as pointed out in [1]; this is because the optimality of a compu-tationally designed shell depends on achieving the right geometric shape in construction. The objective of our research is to find ways to...

Implements a Dynamic Relaxation Algorithm based on the process explained in Adriaenssens, S., P. Block, D. Veenendaal, and C. Williams (2014). Shell Structures for Architecture: Form Finding and Optimization. New York: Routledge. Chapter 2: Review of Dynamic Relaxation with an extension to six degrees of freedom theory" by Adriaenssens et al.