Do I need prior experience with Ladybug, Cyclops, or Wallacei to follow this workshop?

No. While some familiarity with Grasshopper is recommended, the workshop will introduce the essential functions of Ladybug, Cyclops, and Wallacei.

What kind of building will we be working on during the sessions?

The focus is on office building typologies, specifically chosen for their design freedom and facade complexity. You'll apply tools in a real-world context within an existing urban environment.

Will I learn how to perform real-time performance testing and design feedback?

Yes. Cyclops and Ladybug are used together to enable rapid, interactive feedback loops for daylight, radiation, and sustainability metrics.

What is Wallacei used for in this workflow?

Wallacei is used to run evolutionary simulations, helping you optimize form and facade parameters based on performance goals

Does the workshop cover sustainability beyond just daylight and radiation analysis?

Yes. In addition to performance metrics like daylight and solar exposure, the workflow includes broader sustainability considerations such as early-stage energy modeling and carbon emission awareness

Courses Architectural Design Design Integration with Cyclops, Ladybug & Wallacei

Design Integration with Cyclops, Ladybug & Wallacei

Name: Design Integration with Cyclops, Ladybug & Wallacei
Price: 102.00 EUR

This workshop focuses on using Cyclops, Ladybug, and Wallacei for sustainability analysis and performance-driven optimization from massing to facade.

00:00

Overview
Content
Instructors
Reviews

Date:

Aug 23, 24, 2025

Duration:

8 Hours

Difficulty:

Intermediate

Language:

English

Certificate:

Yes

Registration:

€102.00

Tutor:

Olaf Olden

Members:

86.70 EUR (27.75%) discount

Recordings:

Available Indefinitely

Gift Course

Introduction of the workshop:

This workshop introduces a streamlined workflow that enables quick feasibility assessments of form studies. Using Grasshopper 3D, Ladybug/Honeybee, Cyclops, and Wallacei, the process allows for seamless transitions from initial design iterations to detailed facade optimization with minimal effort.

Ladybug, in combination with Cyclops, facilitates near-instant interactive testing, making it easier to explore various design scenarios. The communication between meshes and SubD modeling enables the handling of complex forms with ease, providing greater flexibility in shaping and refining architectural designs.

The core of this approach lies in Grasshopper logic, which efficiently structures data and supports smart computational decisions, ensuring optimal model setup and performance throughout the design process.

What You’ll Learn?

Optimize daylight performance in combination with possible heat stress and glare issues.

Apply radiation simulations to assess and balance solar gains and shading strategies.

Optimize views while integrating them into facade performance assessments.

Highlight viewpoints and rationalize them for benchmarking.

Use sustainability metrics across design scales, from massing to detailed facade elements.

Facilitate a smooth workflow from massing studies to facade rationalization by utilizing structured Grasshopper logic.

Apply evolutionary solvers to optimize form and facade parameters iteratively.

Set up early-stage energy modeling workflows to support informed design decisions.

Set up Carbon emissions for building elements for the integral approach and awareness.

Design Integration with Cyclops, Ladybug & Wallacei

Methodology:

In this workshop, we will focus on an office building typology, known for its freedom in facade articulation and emphasis on transparent, expressive envelopes. Set within an existing urban context, the design will respond to both site-specific and neighboring conditions.

We will begin with form studies, utilizing form factor metrics to assess massing efficiency and envelope performance. SubD modeling will support the transition from mesh-based studies to more complex, organic forms. Form and facade articulation will be linked through an efficient Grasshopper setup.

Next, Ladybug and Cyclops will drive interactive, data-driven evaluations, enabling rapid testing of sustainability KPIs such as daylight and solar exposure.

For detailed facade analysis, Ladybug will assess cumulative radiation, balancing solar gains and shading needs. Finally, we will utilize an evolutionary solver to optimize key design and facade parameters, refining the building iteratively toward enhanced environmental and contextual performance.

Participants will work individually throughout the workshop. A form study of the facade rationalization script will be provided, with predefined guidelines for setting up the geometry. This workflow and its limitations will be explained during the introductory lecture.

Once the facade rationalization is in place, we will explore shading strategies and building specifications, including glazing properties and material selections, assessing their impact on the project's sustainability KPIs.

What You’ll Use?

Highlights:

Content

Intro + PAACADEMY Updates (08:44)

Sustainable Architecture (10:21)

Computational Design for Sustainable Architecture

This session presents computational approaches to sustainable architecture, highlighting parametric modeling, environmental simulations, and embodied carbon optimization tools.

Ladybug Tools & Overview (35:24)

Grasshopper Workflows for Environmental Analysis

This session introduces the setup of environmental workflows in Grasshopper, covering contextual data import, plugin management, and the use of Ladybug tools for weather data and solar path analysis.

Seasonal Analysis in Grasshopper (33:52)

Solar Analysis for Building Masses

This session demonstrates solar hours analysis in Grasshopper, focusing on creating and optimizing building masses, simplifying meshes for faster simulations, and evaluating shadow impacts across different seasons.

Optimization with Wallacei (49:15)

Multi-objective Urban Optimization

This session demonstrates multi-objective optimization in Grasshopper using Wallacei, combining sky view, shadow, iconic view, and solar radiation analyses to evaluate urban block performance, select design variants, and refine geometry into full floor structures for architectural translation.

Adaptive Facade Design Workflow (47:13)

Parametric Workflow for Facade Alignment

This session develops a parametric workflow for aligning room layouts with facade panelization, exploring partition wall adjustments, orientation-based facade grids, graph mappers, and Pufferfish tools to generate adaptive facades.

Preparing Facades for Simulation (34:43)

Facade Rationalization and Simulation Prep

This session concludes with generating and exporting building designs into Rhino, refining facade panelization with orientation-based logic, exploring randomized window configurations, and preparing aligned room geometries for tomorrow’s daylight and irradiance simulations using Honeybee, Cyclops, and Wallacei.

Data Trees to Honeybee (52:36)

Structuring Data for Environmental Simulation

This session explores advanced data structuring in Grasshopper and demonstrates how to build Honeybee geometry for environmental simulations using Honeybee and Cyclops.

Honeybee Daylight Simulation Setup (29:39)

Radiance Workflow for Daylight Analysis

This session demonstrates how to assign material properties in Honeybee Radiance, apply reflectance and transmittance values to walls, floors, ceilings, and windows, integrate building context, generate interior sensor grids, and run daylight factor simulations with Radiance parameters.

Honeybee to Cyclops (53:05)

Introduction to Cyclops

This session wraps up Honeybee with material and compliance workflows, then introduces Cyclops as a faster mesh-based tool for early daylight simulations.

Cyclops Daylight Simulation Workflows (55:51)

Daylight Optimization with Cyclops Tools

This session demonstrates Cyclops workflows for daylight and radiation analysis, highlighting Radiance-linked material setup and comparisons with Honeybee.

Facade Optimization & Daylight (40:57)

Balancing Daylight & Overheating Performance

This session explores multi-objective facade optimization by adjusting window depth and width to balance daylight and overheating, demonstrates exporting fitness values and solutions, and concludes with Q&A on radiance modifiers and site context.

Screenshots:

Instructors:

Olaf Olden

Biography

Olaf Olden is a sustainability technologist whose work explores the intersection between sustainability and parametric design. He completed his master’s degree at TU Delft in 2021, following his initial studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Arnhem. Driven by a longstanding goal to contribute to a more sustainable built environment, Olaf has shaped his career around this mission.He began as a sustainability consultant, focusing on the social and environmental performance of buildings, public spaces, and BREEAM certification processes. This experience led him to a similar role at MVRDV, where he further developed his expertise. A pivotal chapter in his professional journey was his time at OMRT, where he gained in-depth experience with parametric design, a central pillar of his work today. Currently, Olaf works as a Sustainability Technologist at UNS, where he develops practical tools that enable architects to embed sustainability into their design processes. He also shares his knowledge as a teacher at TU Delft and through his own company, MisterMetric. Alongside this, he runs a YouTube channel under the same name, aiming to make parametric design and sustainability concepts more accessible to a broader audience. Through all of these efforts, he hopes to contribute to the conversation about how technology can drive a more responsible future for architecture.