Constraint-aware interior layout exploration for pre-cast concrete-based buildings

Abstract

Creating desirable layouts of building interiors is a complex task as designers have to manually adhere to various local and global considerations arising from competing practical and design considerations. In this work, we present an interactive design tool to create desirable floorplans by computationally conforming to such design constraints. Specifically, we support three types of constraints: (i) functional constraints such as number of rooms, connectivity among the rooms, target room areas, etc.; (ii) design considerations such as user modifications and preferences, and (iii) fabrication constraints such as cost and convenience of manufacturing. Based on user specifications, our system automatically generates multiple floor layouts with associated 3D geometry that all satisfy the design specifications and constraints, thus exposing only the desirable family of interior layouts to the user. In this work, we focus on pre-cast concrete-based constructions, which lead to interesting discrete and continuous optimization possibilities. We test our framework on a range of complex real-world specifications and demonstrate the control and expressiveness of the exposed design space relieving the users of the task of manually adhering to non-local functional and fabrication constraints. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.