Optimization in the architectural practice

For several years great effort has been devoted to the study of Architectural Design Optimization (ADO). However, although in the recent years ADO has attracted much attention from academia, optimization methods and tools have had a limited influence on the architectural profession. The aim of the study is to reveal users' expectations from the optimization tools and define limitations preventing wide-spread adaptation of the optimization solvers in the architectural practice. The paper presents the results of the survey "Optimization in the architectural practice" conducted between December 2015 and February 2016 on 165 architectural trainees and practising architects from 34 countries. The results show that there is a need for an interactive multi-objective optimization tool, as 78% respondents declared that a multi-objective optimization is more necessary in their practice than a single objective one and 91% of them acknowledged the need for choice of promising solutions during optimization process. Finally, it has been found that daylight, structure and geometry are three top factors which architects are interested in optimizing.