Conceptual design automation: consideration of building materials impact at early stages of AEC design

Advance consideration of building materials at early design stages can enhance sustainability and energy con-sumption, as well as overall performance of the building. Proposed method and conceptual prototype within this research, enable designer to analyse building performance by considering building materials (with differ-ent values) at conceptual design level. The prototype using genetic algorithm for generation of design alterna-tives, and BIM integration allow designers to study and analyse different building materials (using the model) by exploiting different BIM simulation capabilities (i.e. energy analysis, cost, schedule, etc.). Amongst a range of benefits (using evolutionary systems), integration of building materials is capable of having a notable im-pact on the construction process lifecycle, if considered correctly. This paper present a conceptual framework which exploits genetic algorithm for generation of design alternatives by reflecting materials at the early de-sign stages (through parameterisation). Therefore, material parameters will be added to the evolutionary sys-tem as design requirements and constraints for generation.