DAYLIGHT PROTOTYPES: FROM SIMULATION DATA TO FOUR-DIMENSIONAL ARTEFACT Physical metrics models in sustainable design education Max C. DOELLING and Ben JASTRAM Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany max@spacesustainers.org, jastram@math.tu-berlin.de Abstract. The increasing use of building performance simulation in architec- tural design enriches digital models and derived prototyping geometries with performance data that makes them analytically powerful artefacts serving sus- tainable design. In our class “Parametric Design”, students perform concurrent thermal and daylight optimization during the architectural ideation process, employing digital simulation tools, and also utilize rapid prototyping tech- niques to produce process artefacts and whole-building analysis models with climate-based daylight metrics physically embedded. Simulation metrics are merged with prototyping geometries to be output on a colour-capable Zprinter; the resultant hybrid artefacts simultaneously allow three-dimensional formal as well as whole-year daylight performance evaluation, rendering analysis scope four-dimensional. They embody a specific epistemological type that we com- pare to other model instances and posit to be an example of multivalent representation, a formal class that aids knowledge accretion in performance- based design workflows and allows designers to gain a physically reframed understanding of geometry-performance relationships. Keywords. Rapid prototyping; building performance modelling; daylight simulation; physical data models; design representation. 1. Introduction: Rapid Prototyping and Performance Simulation Digital design media has undergone several decisive paradigm changes throughout the last decades. The shift from two-dimensional CAD to parametrically responsive, data-enriched digital models has evolved the perception of architecture-in-progress from a play of static representations towards the interaction with dynamic codifica- tions of constraints and form. In parallel, rapid prototyping (RP) techniques have established a direct link with subsets of the material realm. These developments R. Stouffs, P. Janssen, S. Roudavski, B. Tunçer (eds.), Open Systems: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA 2013), 159–168. © 2013, The Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Hong Kong, and Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture (CASA), Department of Architecture-NUS, Singapore. 159