Optimization-Based Facade Design for New Buildings in Historical Environments: Sunlight Exposure

The process of constructing new buildings in a historical environment requires a special design approach in terms of facade continuity and preserving the city's silhouette. It is essential to accurately interpret the full-void relationship of the facade with the dimensions, proportions, window-to-door ratios, and design codes of existing historical structures. However, window design, which is addressed in facade design, is a crucial design parameter that significantly impacts daylight performance and, consequently, thermal comfort. For this reason, while the primary goal is to produce a new building design that is appropriate for the fabric, designing by evaluating the performance of daylight in the interior can enhance the design's power. However, decoding traditional design codes, ensuring facade continuity, and evaluating facade performance criteria are processes that are too difficult to accomplish simultaneously. For this reason, an optimization-based model has been developed in this study that can evaluate all criteria simultaneously and generate hundreds of new structural design alternatives at once. The model consists of three stages: parametric modeling, simulation-based evaluation of sunlight exposure, and optimization. The NSGA-II algorithm was used in the optimization processes. The model was tested in Afyonkarahisar Yukarı Pazar Street, a preserved traditional environment. At the end of the optimization process, tens of design alternatives suitable for the fabric and providing solar exposure performance could be produced simultaneously. The study is significant in that it demonstrates that new structures can be produced not only to suit the fabric but also that contemporary comfort conditions can be incorporated into the design process.