AI & Biodesign for Sustainable Cities: Smart Buildings, Green Architecture & Urban Systems

This workshop aims to train participants to apply biodesign principles and AI-driven performance modelling to design and optimise climate-responsive buildings and sustainable urban systems from building to city scale.

• Teach biodesign + climate-responsive architecture for sustainable buildings.

• Frame and measure comfort, daylight, shading, energy, and emissions goals.

• Build skills in building/urban data handling (occupancy, weather, IEQ).

• Train basic AI/ML energy forecasting and performance analysis in Colab.

• Introduce smart building controls and AI-driven optimisation with PV/BIPV integration.

• Deliver a capstone linking building → district → city scenarios for decision-making.

📅 Day 1 – Biodesign & Climate-Responsive Architecture

• Biodesign Essentials: Biomimicry, green architecture, living facades, green roofs, vertical greenery.
• Climate-Adaptive & Bio-Based Materials: Responsive, regenerative, and bio-based materials for façades and envelopes.
• Performance Basics & Concept Framing: Thermal comfort, daylight, shading, energy-use basics; framing building performance problems.
• Hands-on: Simple concept exercise mapping biodesign ideas to performance objectives.

📅 Day 2 – Data & AI Foundations for Building Performance

• Building Energy & Environment Data: Loads, occupancy, schedules, weather, indoor environmental quality indicators.
• AI/ML for Energy Forecasting: Time-series and ML models for predicting building energy consumption.
• Linking Materials, Form & Energy: How façade/material decisions influence model features and energy performance.
• Hands-on: Colab notebook for basic energy-consumption prediction on sample building data.

📅 Day 3 – Smart Buildings, Automation & Renewables

• Smart Building Systems & Control: HVAC, lighting, sensors, BMS/BAS; comfort vs. efficiency trade-offs.
• AI-Driven Control & Optimisation: Using AI to optimise setpoints, schedules, and operational strategies.
• Rooftop PV & BIPV Integration: Coupling building demand with on-site renewables and storage; peak-shaving and emission reduction.
• Hands-on: Colab notebook for simple optimisation of HVAC + lighting + rooftop PV scenario.

📅 Day 4 – AI for Smart Urban Systems & Capstone

• Smart Cities & Urban Planning with AI: Land-use, density, green/blue networks, and resource flows at district/city scale.
• City-Scale Energy, Mobility & Sustainability Indicators: Aggregating building data to district level; transit, EV charging, and sustainability metrics.
• Governance, Policy & Capstone Scenario: Decision-support dashboards; scenarios combining biodesign + smart buildings + urban systems.
• Hands-on Capstone: Multi-scale scenario (building → district → city) in Colab; compare “business-as-usual” vs “AI & biodesign–optimised” futures.

• Architecture, urban planning, and design students/professionals

• Civil, environmental, energy, and sustainability engineers

• Building performance/green building practitioners (HVAC, energy modelling, IEQ)

• Smart city, GIS, and urban systems professionals

• Data science/AI/ML learners interested in climate, buildings, and urban analytics

• Policy, governance, and sustainability stakeholders working on resilient city solutions

• Translate biodesign ideas into measurable building performance goals.

• Use building + environmental data (occupancy, weather, IEQ) for analysis.

• Build basic AI/ML energy forecasting models in Colab.

• Apply AI-based optimisation for HVAC/lighting and integrate PV/BIPV + storage concepts.

• Deliver a capstone comparing “business-as-usual” vs AI + biodesign–optimised futures from building → district → city.