Balancing Construction Costs and Environmental and Social Performances in High-Rise Urban Development: A Generative Urban Design Approach

The urban design process is complex and interdisciplinary, especially in the context of high-density cities with high-rise buildings. The design of high-rise buildings requires input from a variety of stakeholders in the city, who often represent conflicting requirements and interests. However, conv...

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Main Authors: Peng Du, Geoffrey Little, Erick Romero
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Buildings
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/15/5/661
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author Peng Du
Geoffrey Little
Erick Romero
author_facet Peng Du
Geoffrey Little
Erick Romero
author_sort Peng Du
collection DOAJ
description The urban design process is complex and interdisciplinary, especially in the context of high-density cities with high-rise buildings. The design of high-rise buildings requires input from a variety of stakeholders in the city, who often represent conflicting requirements and interests. However, conventional design approaches struggle to address this complexity. This study introduced a generative urban design approach and applied it to a case study for high-rise urban development in Guangzhou, China. Specifically, 7500 urban forms were generated with variables such as street networks, block offset, building typology, and green space, and then were evaluated and optimized via multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. A total of 30,000 performance values were generated through various simulations. This study also presented a two-round, quantitative evaluation process against eight performance objectives from environmental, social, and economic aspects, including urban density, green space area, Daylight Potential, construction cost, Heat Stress, Green Space Accessibility, View Interest, and Shadow Impact.
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publishDate 2025-02-01
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spelling doaj-art-a3b3cccb85594ade899efbc9028ba2f02025-08-20T02:52:45ZengMDPI AGBuildings2075-53092025-02-0115566110.3390/buildings15050661Balancing Construction Costs and Environmental and Social Performances in High-Rise Urban Development: A Generative Urban Design ApproachPeng Du0Geoffrey Little1Erick Romero2College of Architecture and the Built Environment, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19144, USAGenesis AEC, Blue Bell, PA 19422, USACollege of Architecture and the Built Environment, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19144, USAThe urban design process is complex and interdisciplinary, especially in the context of high-density cities with high-rise buildings. The design of high-rise buildings requires input from a variety of stakeholders in the city, who often represent conflicting requirements and interests. However, conventional design approaches struggle to address this complexity. This study introduced a generative urban design approach and applied it to a case study for high-rise urban development in Guangzhou, China. Specifically, 7500 urban forms were generated with variables such as street networks, block offset, building typology, and green space, and then were evaluated and optimized via multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. A total of 30,000 performance values were generated through various simulations. This study also presented a two-round, quantitative evaluation process against eight performance objectives from environmental, social, and economic aspects, including urban density, green space area, Daylight Potential, construction cost, Heat Stress, Green Space Accessibility, View Interest, and Shadow Impact.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/15/5/661generative urban designperformance-based designevolutionary algorithmsimulation
spellingShingle Peng Du
Geoffrey Little
Erick Romero
Balancing Construction Costs and Environmental and Social Performances in High-Rise Urban Development: A Generative Urban Design Approach
Buildings
generative urban design
performance-based design
evolutionary algorithm
simulation
title Balancing Construction Costs and Environmental and Social Performances in High-Rise Urban Development: A Generative Urban Design Approach
title_full Balancing Construction Costs and Environmental and Social Performances in High-Rise Urban Development: A Generative Urban Design Approach
title_fullStr Balancing Construction Costs and Environmental and Social Performances in High-Rise Urban Development: A Generative Urban Design Approach
title_full_unstemmed Balancing Construction Costs and Environmental and Social Performances in High-Rise Urban Development: A Generative Urban Design Approach
title_short Balancing Construction Costs and Environmental and Social Performances in High-Rise Urban Development: A Generative Urban Design Approach
title_sort balancing construction costs and environmental and social performances in high rise urban development a generative urban design approach
topic generative urban design
performance-based design
evolutionary algorithm
simulation
url https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/15/5/661
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AT geoffreylittle balancingconstructioncostsandenvironmentalandsocialperformancesinhighriseurbandevelopmentagenerativeurbandesignapproach
AT erickromero balancingconstructioncostsandenvironmentalandsocialperformancesinhighriseurbandevelopmentagenerativeurbandesignapproach