Integrated Structural & Environmental Optimisation of Timber Gridshells

Overview

A curved gridshell lattice does two jobs at once: it carries load through membrane action, and its geometry modulates how the envelope is exposed to the sky. In most workflows these two concerns are evaluated in separate tools, one after the other — so a structurally efficient geometry is only later found to perform poorly environmentally, or vice versa.

This project builds one parametric model where both are evaluated together. A single Grasshopper canvas couples structural analysis, envelope-radiation analysis, and evolutionary multi-objective search, so that any change to the geometry re-scores every objective at once — turning a sequential, weeks-long handoff into a continuous exploration.

Approach

The workflow is designed as an early-design front-end, not a code-verification pipeline — a way to reduce the number of dead-end geometries before expensive engineering checks, while keeping the trade-offs auditable.

• Structure — Karamba3D: large-deformation form-finding and cross-section screening on a timber lattice.
• Environment — Ladybug Tools: envelope incident-radiation analysis from EPW climate data via a cumulative sky matrix.
• Search — Wallacei (NSGA-II): evolutionary multi-objective optimisation over the geometry's design genes.

The method is demonstrated on a timber gridshell case study, with results reported as a catalogue of trade-off solutions for a designer to weigh, rather than a single "optimal" geometry.

My role

Author & computational researcher — workflow architecture, parametric modelling, simulation setup, optimisation, and the analysis of results. This work extends my M.Sc. research at Istanbul University into a more rigorous, reproducible study.