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Product Development Research
(professional research consultancy)
The client, a major glass manufacturer, sought directions on formulating a new product development strategy and research trajectory in line with future building industry developments.
TASKS: Investigate energy stretch codes and health standards, offsite construction, automation and digitalization through a multi-disciplinary team of University of Michigan faculties and industry experts.
ACTIONS: Independently began new research inquiries into value chains and real estate drivers to evaluate business models of emerging design and construction firms; proposed studies into select North American cities to evaluate technology and code impact;
diagrammatically visualized results; formulated quantitative and qualitative forecasts; managed research database and team.
RESULTS: Produced three distinct reports, of which I was primarily responsible for the first two concerning energy codes and health standards, as well as disruptive business models, factory manufacturing, construction automation and digital tools. The impacts of the above were tested out on three future building development scenarios in the third report to which I made key analytical contributions.
Faculty and professional researchers from architecture, real estate, construction engineering, robotics, and environmental science contributed to the work, as did members of Guardian Glass. The work was also supported by professionals from Koch Industries, Related Companies, Front Inc. & Birchpoint Consulting. All drawings for the first two reports are authored by me.
Report 1: EMERGING STRETCH CODES AND VOLUNTARY STANDARDS:
Current trends & implications for the glazing industry
This paper studies the different impacts, stakeholder concerns and application contexts of energy stretch codes and health standards - not only on the glazing industry, but also on the building industry as a whole. Adoption of advanced environmental regulations and occupant health standards by US cities is forecast to grow by at least 1.4 times over the next two decades. Stretch codes vary across jurisdictions, as do local incentives and penalties for building, and implicate reduced WWR ratios for buildings and/or the use of triple-paned glass in order to meet energy targets performance. Embodied carbon and other LCA-related assessments are being discussed but have yet to reach widespread implementation or agreement on standards. Occupant health measures, particularly the WELL standard, are emerging as voluntary standards for workplaces and other sectors such as healthcare and education.
Energy stretch code & health standard adoption timeline
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Global energy stretch codes, policies & legislations
Report 2: INDUSTRY 4.0:
Implications of digitalization, automation, off-site fabrication & vertical integration for the design ecologies of glass
Generative design tools, simulation software, BIM, and AI are rapidly evolving to meet the growing demand for digitalization and automation in the AECO industry, for their ability to enable iterative and fluid design, and specification processes. Offsite construction and automation are increasingly penetrating
certain asset classes such as single-family and multi-family residential, healthcare, education, etc, expecting to dominate beyond the current 4% of the construction industry. Industry 4.0, and IPD have also enabled new vertically integrated company models, such as Factory_OS or the Vancouver-based startup Intelligent City, where planning, design, and factory-based construction combine to deliver housing as an affordable high-quality product to scale.
Factory-built unitized glazing products seem likely to grow for applications in dense urban commercial construction markets.
Value chain map, Sidewalk Labs
Report 3: DESIGN SCENARIOS 2040:
Multi-objective optimization design frameworks
The combined impact of Industry 4.0 and advanced codes and standards were assessed through hypothetical building development scenarios in Austin TX, Minneapolis MN, and Washington DC. These cities are all characterized by growing construction markets, as well as progressive urban development policies; they also represent different climatic contexts. All three scenarios utilize prefabricated volumetric and panelized construction for the residential and unitized facades for the commercial scenario.
The research team developed its own multi-objective generative software demonstrator in Grasshopper that integrates multiple objectives, databases, and analysis capabilities to explore the design possibility space. The future of design decision-making will increasingly depend on such software and complex informational models; they can “find” solutions that may be unexpected or counter-intuitive, and are only as good as the information they are fed, as there are currently many gaps in information.
Future scenario development for Minneapolis: Development Value Chain Map
Scorecard ranking the impacts of different design parameters on construction and real estate value
Generative design proposal: Mixed-use housing (illustrations by project team)
PROCESS
Output
CLIENT
A global glass manufacturer
PROBLEM
Need for direction to
formulate new company
strategy, research
trajectory and developing
products in line with
future building industry
developments.
PLAN
Exploratory Research &
Analysis of major disciplinary trends
Synthesis & Final Product
undecided
Study of glass production
paradigm shifts
Study of envelope typologies
RISING ACTION
Establish ecology map of interrelated issues to identify key growth areas
Research process:
Literature Review
methodology cancelled
RESEARCH ECOLOGY DIAGRAM
ANNOTATED & SUMMARIZED LITERATURE DATABASE
RISING ACTION
Distill data from select research lines:
A. Energy Stretch Codes
B. Human Health Standards
C. Offsite Construction
D. Automation technologies: Robotics, Additive Manufacturing
E. Generative Design & AI
F. Novel Business Models / Value Chains of design & construction firms
G. New Real Estate / Urban Design Agenda
Research process:
1 Literature Review
2 Interviews
3 Firm Case Study
DATA SUMMARY & ANALYSIS
1 Global Building Energy Codes & Legislations
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2 Value Chain Maps: Sidewalk Labs, Katerra, New Hudson Facades, Permasteelisa
3 Future Real Estate Drivers
4 Health Design Standards
5 Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing Industries
6 Timber building typologies
7 Unitized facade typologies
Establish city selection criteria
1 Progressive energy codes
2 Progressive urban development agenda
3 Growing construction markets
4 Varying geography & climate
5 Varying pre-existing built environment
6 Finalize cities: Austin, TX, Minneapolis, MN &
Washington, D.C.
RISING ACTION
Develop 3 future architectural scenarios to show impact of future industry trends through city selection process
Establish development & design parameters for building design
a Urban development agenda analysis
b Site analysis from options, including transportation & zoning
c Architectural landscape analysis
d Building typology, ownership, occupant profile, management system, construction material,
technology & cost
e Energy sources, cost, health standards
1 Growing construction markets with
progressive energy codes
2 City analysis
3 Future narratives design parameter database
CLIMAX
Design multistoried, mixed use buildings
1 Design development value chains for future scenarios
2 Research & develop multi-objective parametric design generator in Rhino & Grasshopper
3 Experiment with climatic & zoning parameters in
isolation to derive building form
4 Input all select parameters to derive final building form
5 Hypothesize dynamic proforma underwriting for
future scenarios; connect with design generator
1 New development value chains for Austin, Minneapolis & Washington, DC
2 Results from the generative design software leading to development proposal
FALLING ACTION
Analyze future scenarios, forecast industry trends
1 Develop "real estate score cards" showing impacts
of design parameters on building development time &
cost, as well as net operating income and other financial variables.
2 Summarize industry trend forecast
3 Summarize & forecast energy stretch code adoption
1 Development impact scorecard
2 Stretch code adoption forecast
3 Future industry trends
summary
4 Three white papers on
the concerned topics
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