The objective of ECOLOPES was to develop a novel design approach that not only focusses on humans, but also includes other organisms such as plants, animals, and even microorganisms in the design strategy. For this, ECOLOPES aimed to make ecological knowledge available for the architectural design process, to find architectural solutions that enable synergies and limit conflicts between humans and the other inhabitants. ECOLOPES aimed to provide guidelines on how to in principle design ecolopes for future cities, and tools, models, algorithms, optimization approaches and databases that will help to achieve the vision of an integrated urban ecosystem. The ECOLOPES project development relies on a systematic approach which results from a strong collaboration between disciplines. This systematic approach is needed to be able to consider the interactions between the abiotic environment, including architecture, and the different biota of the ecolope, and between the different inhabitants themselves. ECOLOPES has tackled the challenge by developing models to simulate the ecolope ecosystem, to provide data on building envelope requirements.
TUM and SAAD developed a soil-microbe-plant-animal model consisting of separate submodels that can be run alone and in combination, as well as a regional model. The plant and the animal submodels can be parametrized to fit species communities worldwide using newly developed algorithm based on the concept of plant and animal functional groups developed by UNIGE.
One of the significant achievements is the development of the ECOLOPES computational framework in WP3 (lead McNeel). Therefore, the ECOLOPES computational framework was key to facilitating an interdisciplinary collaborative project among ecologists, architects, computational designers, and experts in human-nature interaction, providing a solid foundation for a joint understanding and the connection between methods in ecology and computational design in architecture.
The plant model by SAAD has been successfully coupled by McNeel with their software Rhinoceros/Grasshopper in the new Rhino/Grasshopper plugin (© McNeel). This new software seamlessly integrates an external C++ open-source ecological plant model, enabling ecological simulations of 3D building envelopes and 3D models in general. Furthermore, the Knowledge Generation Framework (KGF) was developed in WP3 and a second new software application by McNeel that systematically computes correlations between 3D geometry and ecological performance by linking geometric, environmental, and ecological attributes derived from McNeel’s new Rhino/ Grasshopper plugin.
To enable a systematic approach, Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) measure the consequences of a particular design for and non-human inhabitants. A further result is the completion of an optimization workflow based on existing tools, that allows to specifically assess the trade-offs between optimizing a building for human needs, and optimizing for other organisms. The relationships between architecture and ecology can be stored in a knowledge graph by TU VIENNA. The ECOLOPES approach and individual components have been validated using a number of approaches.
UNIGE and TUM have come up with a comprehensive exploitation strategy. Short-term projects include McNeel’s Rhino/ Grasshopper plugin as a design-making decision tool (TRL7-TRL9), and the Knowledge Graph by TU Vienna. Mid-term projects encompass the ecological model and the ECOLOPES Façade System. Longer-term initiatives involve development of further ecologically based analysis tools.
