Design Generation App drives Sustainability in the Construction industry
Sustainability and efficiency challenges
Worldwide, the construction sector is one of the largest contributors to global green gas emissions, responsible for nearly 40% of the total amount. Part of this is due to inefficient workflows between architects, engineers, and sustainability experts, making construction projects prone to high costs, long timelines, and wasted resources.
Challenges like these make it near impossible to reach sustainability goals and adapt to project regulations, which are getting stricter each year. On top of that, analyzing construction scenarios according to traditional methods is time-consuming and requires lots of specialized expertise. This means engineers are limited in their ability to test multiple design scenarios effectively and find the most optimal one, and non-experts are unable to make well-informed decisions based on design.
Optimizing construction scenarios
On a mission to tackle these challenges, build.ing set out to create an integrated application that combines urban planning, sustainability and engineering workflows. The purpose of the app is to simplify the analysis of construction scenarios to save time and make these insights accessible to decision-makers without a technical background as well.
The application is designed to support a variety of use cases, such as:
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Urban Planning: Municipalities can evaluate land use and optimize building placement based on zoning regulations and environmental impact.
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Residential and Commercial Construction: Developers can assess the feasibility of different designs, balancing costs, sustainability, and construction timelines.
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Sustainability-focused projects: Companies aiming to reduce embodied carbon and meet regulatory requirements can test materials and configurations to find the most sustainable option.
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Industrial facilities: Manufacturers can plan layouts to optimize space utilization and energy efficiency.
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Real Estate development: Decision-makers can quickly assess the viability of a project without needing deep technical knowledge, saving time and resources.
“The application empowers decision-makers to make informed, sustainable, and cost-effective choices.”
Leonardo Pappas
Co-Founder and COO at build.ing
Design generation application
Using VIKTOR – a platform to create web apps with Python – build.ing created a comprehensive design generation application powered by Grasshopper scripts. In the application, users can set project goals, site parameters, and other requirements, enabling the analysis of thousands of constructive scenarios in as little as just one minute. The app uses tools like Ladybug and Karamba3D for solar analysis and structural optimization, ensuring seamless integration across workflows.
Key features of the application include:
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Optimized algorithms: evolutionary algorithms rank the scenarios based on costs, sustainability, and construction time.
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Geographic Information Systems (GIS) integration: incorporates municipal regulations and planning constraints.
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Sustainability metrics: evaluates embodied carbon and solar exposure to find greener construction choices.
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Material efficiency: enables optimal selection and usage of materials to reduce waste and cost.
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Artificial Intelligence: AI algorithms to improve processes based on the continued utilization of the platform.
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User-friendly interface: makes data accessible to technical and non-technical stakeholders, such as real estate developers.
"VIKTOR enables us to develop complex tools that integrate multiple workflows, while still being accessible to users without advanced technical skills."
Leonardo Pappas
Co-Founder and COO at build.ing
About build.ing
build.ing is a digital platform, dedicated to reshaping the construction industry by offering full architecture, engineering, and sustainability solutions powered by AI and Machine Learning. With their client’s objective in one hand and their social and environmental responsibility in the other, they set out to make sure every kg, m2 or m3 is used as efficiently as possible.
“We wanted to do something different to help the world. We are a clean tech company with the goal of bringing higher productivity to the construction sector.” - Leonardo Pappas, Co-Founder and COO build.ing
Conclusion
Digital developments like these are crucial to the future of a sustainable construction industry. By integrating disciplines and providing powerful analysis, both experts and non-experts are empowered to make more informed decisions that help reduce cost and resources, minimize environmental impact, and accelerate project timelines – all things essential to meet sustainability goals and adapt to strict regulations.
“The VIKTOR platform has significantly accelerated our development process. What would have taken months, we achieved in weeks thanks to the seamless integration with Python.”
Leonardo Pappas
Co-Founder and COO at build.ing
What’s next?
If you’re reading this and recognize these challenges, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We can help you analyze your processes and identify automation opportunities that empower you to reach your goals.
