Consulting engineer Buro Happold has developed what it describes as a parametric fa莽ade design tool that could reduce the cost of residential apartment construction by enough to improve scheme viability and accelerate delivery.
With facades emerging as a critical pressure point for the residential scheme, Buro Happold used a rapid prototyping design approach to deliver a detailed parametric study on daylighting, thermal comfort and energy use across the apartments.
The firm鈥檚 sustainability and physics team has undertaken four years of research into how emerging technologies can optimise facade design early in the process.
The result is an facade design tool that evaluates nearly three million facade configurations using parameters such as glazing type (U-value), window-to-wall ratio, openable area, shading strategies, G-value, thermal bridging and air permeability. These are processed through Buro Happold鈥檚 proprietary BHoM software and visualised in a game engine environment, allowing design teams to toggle between daylighting, overheating, and energy scenarios in real time.
Buro Happold has now applied machine learning to the dataset to offer an infinite number of facade options in seconds.
Ben Richardson, director of sustainability and physics at Buro Happold, said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e modelled three million different residential buildings 鈥� that鈥檚 roughly the size of London. This means we can initially bypass the need for modelling, and instead use our database to instantly provide architects and clients with data-backed, visual guidance on what will work for their specific design goals.
鈥淭he tool is fully compliant with Greater London Authority (GLA) requirements and integrates official SAP engines, IES, and CIBSE TM59 methodologies. This ensures that outputs are not only technically robust but also suitable for inclusion in formal energy statements.鈥�
Buro Happold reckons that the implications for design teams are significant. By enabling passive design strategies that eliminate the need for comfort and trim cooling, the parametric facade design tool can deliver savings of up to 拢10,000 per apartment. Beyond cost, it also provides early certainty on meeting daylight, carbon, and overheating targets 鈥� reducing risk and streamlining the design process.
For architects, the tool offers early-stage clarity before the design freeze, while quantity surveyors benefit from more detailed facade data to inform cost planning. Developers gain a more optimised, compliant, and financially viable scheme 鈥� without the need for expensive post-design interventions.
Currently being trialled on UK residential projects, the parametric facade design tool has the potential to be adapted for other building typologies, including commercial and mixed-use developments, the firm says.
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