Multi-objective Optimization at the Conceptual Design Phase of an Office Room Through Evolutionary Computation

An implementation of multi-objective optimization for design of an office room is presented through maximizing illuminance value and minimizing cooling energy consumption on a summer extreme day in a Mediterranean hot climate region. Existing literature shows different examples of multi-objective optimization problems in the field of performance-based building design. Principally, performance criteria such as energy and daylight should be integrated in the early stage of the conceptual design phase to provide energy-efficient solutions in buildings. Since most of the architectural design problems are difficult to solve, multi-objective optimization methods provide many design solutions to the decision makers. We used Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II namely NSGA-II to present many design alternatives by satisfying two conflicting objectives at the same time in the presented office room problem.