Sustainability Through Optimal Design of Buildings for Natural Ventilation Using Updated Comfort and Occupancy Models

This paper explores the benefits of incorporating natural ventilation (NV) simulation into a generative process of designing residential buildings to improve energy efficiency and indoor thermal comfort. Our proposed workflow uses the Wave Function Collapse algorithm to generate a diverse set of floor plans. It also includes post-COVID occupant presence models while incorporating adaptive comfort models. We conduct four sets of experiments using the workflow, and the simulated results suggest that multi-mode cooling strategies combining conventional air conditioning with NV can often significantly reduce energy use, about 18% to 40%, while introducing slight reductions in thermal comfort. This workflow could be beneficial for architects and other stakeholders to generate diverse design options and make decisions based on NV performance.

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