Paper Title
Optimization Tools for Assisting the Architectural Design Process

Abstract
The majority of the buildings are designed in an unsustainable manner and are responsible for a large part of the waste creation and resource consumption. The sustainable design means holisticaly integrating multitude of design aspects, previously not considered in the conventional building design, and which include the environmental, social and economic domain. The multifaceted nature of the sustainable design often brings need for resolving conflicting building demands, leading to the neccessity of their trade-off and interdependent balancing. The conventional design process is not able to cope with such complexity and therefore an iterative, parametrized design process is needed that utilizes optimization tools and algorithms in order to find near-optimal solutions within a short timeframe. This research is oriented towards investigation of the existing optimization tools and their application in the architectural design process. It is investigated in which building design aspects the optimization procedure is most commonly used and which tools are used. The research shows that the optimization tools can greatly assist the architectural design process, make it more efficient and effective in improving the buildings` design sustainability. It is noted that the optimization tools can greatly alleviate the decision making process during the buildings` design and make it a more informed process. Additionally, the findings show that the optimization is a complex process demanding knowledge and skills among architects that exceed the architectural domain. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the CA15140-Improving Applicability of Nature-Inspired Optimisation by Joining Theory and Practice (ImAppNIO) Cost Action for its excellent research and networking possibilities. Keywords- Optimization, Building Simulation Performance, Energy performance, Sustainability.