From the course: Revit: Generative Design

What is generative design? - Revit Tutorial

From the course: Revit: Generative Design

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What is generative design?

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- [Instructor] Applications of design technology in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry have been developing exponentially as we adopt more advanced BIM, computational design, and most recently, artificial intelligence strategies within our projects. One methodology that is increasingly making its way into practice and having a real impact on how we automate the design process is generative design. To put simply, generative design is a design process that utilizes computer algorithms to automate the generation, evaluation, and optimization of a design based on constraints and goals that we, the designers, set. This iterative process allows the computer to quickly generate and test a multitude of design scenarios that may otherwise be overlooked due to time constraints or other factors. Generative design enables the designer to explore a much larger variety of design options without the pain of manually designing and evaluating each option by hand. Generative design does this for us. For example, say we had to design a building form that was best suited for its context, with regards to the available area, solar orientation, and cost. Traditionally, to design this, we may rely on previous examples and our experience from previous projects. But what if there were other design options that were better suited for our design criteria, which we either did not have the time to test or just didn't expect? This is where generative design comes in. This process allows us to automate the generation of many different scenarios to find unique and optimized solutions. Each option is evaluated to understand if each iteration was better or worse than the previous, based on the design criteria that we set. The computer then may arrive at a solution that best fits all of the design criteria that we have set, even though we may not have expected it. As the designer, generative design allows us to explore a much larger landscape of design options, which makes it a great tool that augments the design process for better and faster outcomes.

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