Towards a spatial and functional building design system
N.C. Baker · 1989
The focus of this research is to investigate the conceptual structure of a design system to assist structural engineers and architects in designing buildings. In the design of a building, there are at least two concurrent goals: to provide a functional and aesthetically pleasing building (typically the architect's domain); and to provide a structurally safe building (typically the structural engineer's domain). These two aspects of building design are intimately coupled via spatial issues: the designed objects of all domains must share the same space, requiring that the locations of the designed objects of multiple domains be compatible. The result of this study is a methodology to aid designers in performing conceptual design by serving both spatial planning and structural system design. The study explores the use of context-sensitive grammars in a knowledge-based system (KBS) capable of representing the structural and architectural functions (semantics) of buildings and performing spatial reasoning during the design process. The study first investigates various methods for representing and using a context-sensitive grammar in the two-dimensional domain of retaining walls. The results of this investigation direct the way in which a building design system grammar is implemented. A knowledge acquisition study is performed to determine how structural engineers use spatial information during conceptual design. A design system model is presented which allows the domain knowledge (semantics) to interact with other domains via a spatial model (syntax). The design system model supports the process and domain knowledge gathered from the knowledge acquisition study. The model allows for the generation of design solutions and the critique of potential solutions. A prototype version of the design system model is developed. The prototype is based on a simple context-sensitive shape grammar at the lowest level, and an abstract grammar at the highest level. The shape grammar permits the development and checking of the spatial representation of the design. The abstract grammar allows the development of design context. Several design scenarios are presented to demonstrate the operation of the design system model. The prototype provides a framework for formal discussion of the spatial representations needed for generating configurations of structural and architectural objects.