IT & SOFTWARE 2 VIRTUAL MODELLING
With the help of Max Fordham, Aedas
R&D built a similar model for Masdar, a zero carbon neighbourhood development in Abu Dhabi. The design team had to balance the embodied and operational carbon footprint with the cost of different fabric build-ups, shading strategies and cooling strategies in a very short space of time. Having a VIM model meant that the team was able to demonstrate the effects of briefing changes for different design options. Amongst others, the client was interested in the carbon implications of inferior U-values, greater small-power use, lower chiller efficiency and abandoning natural ventilation. By demonstrating the proportional impact of these changes across many design ‘options’, Aedas could agree on a way forward at concept stage, so that neighbourhood carbon and cost budgets could be adhered to. In a VIM environment information is
structured so that many scenarios can be tested collaboratively, as opposed to a BIM model, which is built for information to be extracted for independent evaluation by
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specialists. A BIM model is effectively a 3D model with a database back-end. For it to be useful it needs many components with tables of properties attached – but the more components one enters, the more difficult it becomes to make changes. A VIM model, on the other hand, captures
the relationships that drive designs – it is as lightweight as possible. Component location and parameters, be these geometric or performative, can be driven by pre-defined relationships in such a way that objects can adapt to local conditions. For instance, as part of a design model of a building, one could change the facade build-up, core size, floorplates or building geometry and the location of columns update in real-time and room layouts adapt to accommodate. The opportunities for design are endless and Aedas R&D [
www.aedasresearch.com] has gone a long way to explore these via customised parametric models, as well as bespoke software. It is easy to think that the ideal platform
would be one that lends itself to all these approaches. Yet designing with
January 2012 CIBSE Journal 39
Top: Simulation of the dynamic Mashrabiya screen of Al Bahr Towers, Abu Dhabi
Below: Recent Aedas tall building projects
Aedas
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