After an updated attempt at mass analysis I have few new results, but they are significant. Optimized parameters were altered to constrain most aspects of the building, but to allow for variable floor to floor height and building rotation. The building was placed in context as an infill project in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. Based on the placement and location several design decisions were made including constraining the building to 11 floors, as a 6 sided structure, with a radius of 15 meters. Since in my initial analysis these variables were found to have little influence on the daylight autonomy of the space it was more important that they be design related decisions rather than environmental optimization decisions.
Outputs were also somewhat modified. After some research on the IESNA website I found that the minimum requirement for daylight autonomy in an office building was 400 lux for general tasks, measured at .4 meters above floor height.
Through optimization I found that on the lower floors which are shaded by context buildings needed a floor to floor height of at least 6 meters and that upper floors required a floor to floor height of at least 3.3 meters. A building rotation of 8 degrees was found to be ideal.
High levels of daylight autonomy were achieved with this configuration nearing 100%. Below is the final optimized form and relevant files.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_2XBV7ImCpweGcwS3NUQkpKelE/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_2XBV7ImCpwS2tqeHVUQzV3MFE/view?usp=sharing
R T Stangl 