Architecture Engineers Award

Introduction Ice-shell architecture in cold regions faces significant challenges related to snow accumulation, radiation exposure, and long-term weatherability. While snow distribution data is critical for optimizing architectural performance, current design practices lack effective tools for predicting snow drift during early design stages. This study addresses this gap by proposing a computational snow drift simulation method tailored to ice-shell architecture, enabling architects to integrate environmental performance considerations into early-stage design decision-making. Limitations of Existing Snow Drift Prediction Methods Traditional snow drift simulation techniques are often complex, computationally demanding, and inaccessible to architects during conceptual design phases. These limitations restrict their application primarily to engineering validation rather than design exploration. This section discusses the technological and methodological gaps in existing approaches, hig...