BDG is an interdisciplinary research group focused on understanding, improving, and applying advanced computational techniques in early building design.  Our research sits at the intersection of engineering, design, and computer science, while adapting advancements in interactive optimization, data science, and parametric design to enable creative, innovative approaches to architectural engineering.  Research topics include proposing and refining new data-driven workflows and digital environments; design studies that interrogate the interface between human designers and computational tools; and using artificial intelligence and optimization for architectural engineering problems at the system, building, and urban scale.  While we primarily concentrate on aspects of structural design and conceptual decisions that relate to structural form and performance, our research seeks to integrate a variety of disciplinary domains, such as energy, daylighting, and acoustics, while uncovering how these concerns relate to one another during various design tasks.

Our research goals are linked and often build on one another, from developing new computational methods, to implementing them in design tools, before applying them to pressing issues in the built environment today.

The group is part of a larger research ecosystem at Penn State and is connected to adjacent centers and departments, including the Computer Integrated Construction Research Group, the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing, and others. BDG research has been financially supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the American Institute of Architects, and the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences at Penn State.

Nathan Brown
Assistant Professor of Architectural Engineering | Penn State University

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