Patrik Svanerudha
Abstract: This paper describes some of the characteristics of the constraints , caused by the
architects ' decisions , that affect the choice of technical solutions in timber engineering and
especially in design of multi-storey houses. The constraints serve as requirements on design
automation algorithms that are supposed to select the most cost-effective technical solution
and design the selected solution within a given set of architectural constraints . The results
presented in this paper are a very condensed version of the results from interviews with all
of the architects involved in multi-storey timber residential house projects up to May 1998
in Sweden.
1.1 The fragmented building process The study presented in this paper is the first step
of a research project called " Design Automation for
A building' s lifecycle includes the general phases Multi-storey Timber Houses ". The objective of the
of planning, design, construction , facility project is to:
management and demolition. In response to the
complexity of today's construction industry, the a Identify the constraints , caused by the
industry has involved specialists in each of these architects decisions , which affect the choice
areas. Specialisation has resulted in fragmentation of technical solutions in timber engineering
within the industry . Although all participants in the and especially in design of multi-storey
building process use the same information, the houses.
industry is characterised by redundant manual • Find algorithms that automatically can select
processing of that information between phases, the most cost-effective technical solution
between disciplines within a phase, and between tasks given a set of constraints.
within disciplines . The vertical and horizontal Integrate the found algorithms to it
fragmentation of the building industry reduces quality programmable logistic and /or mathematical
and increases the life cycle costs of the final product. model.
This design automation project is a specialisation
This paper is focused on the design phase of the and a natural continuation of the wider work " Pre-
building process and specifically the phase between engineered buildings - a system approach towards a
the architectural design and the structural design. more efficient building process" [11.
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The purpose of this paper is to present results approaches but there are often a common purpose;
from the first part of the project concerning reduce the redundant manual processing of data by
architectural constraints for design automation increased use of computers and thereby reach a more
systems and thereby contribute to a better knowledge cost-effective solution with improved quality. These
about what requirements a software developer have to benefits are also recognised by Sacks & W arszawski
meet in order to develop a competitive design [3] which have a similar approach to design
automation system for timber houses. automation as in this project. They describe an
architecture and operation of an automated system for
In the opening section of this paper the problem generation of design and planning information for
of the fragmented building process is briefly multi-storey rectangular buildings. The system
discussed in general terms. Section 2 is a description receives the developer's requirements as input and
of the design automation concept as it is used in this generates the information necessary for the realisation
study. In section 3 the concept of architectural of various design and construction stages. The
constraints is discussed . The description of the system, called ABS (Automated Building System),
inquiry method is found in section 4 and the includes object representation of the project,
presentation of the inquiry results is found in knowledge modules for information processing and
section 5 . Further work is presented in section 6 and linkage to various databases. Through employment of
the conclusions will he found in section 7. templates with knowledge driven parameters, the
design of building layouts and work assemblies is
simplified.
2. DESIGN AUTOMATION
Architectural
Design automation within the building industry in Constraints
its broader sense includes automation of every stage
Requirements on design
of the design phase in the building process. The
automation algorithms
definition of what stages that are included in the
design phase can vary. If the design phase is defined Design Automation Algorithms
as "From architect's desk to start of manufacturing Evaluation of a set of architectural
constraints
and/or construction", the design phase include several
Selection of cost-effective technical
challenging tasks to automate such as the architect's solutions (e.g. type of structure)
exterior and interior design, the structural engineer's Design of selected technical solutions
evaluation of structural alternatives and structural (e.g. structural design)
design of the selected alternative and the detailer's
production of material lists, cutting lists, shop T
drawings and erection drawings. Tasks such as
Object- Oriented
preliminary cost calculations, environmental impact, Product Model
energy loss calculations and acoustic calculations can
be added to that. All of these tasks are important to
include in a design automation system in order to Figure I. Design automation concept for the
comprise the entire design process but it is an project "Design Automation for Multi-storey Timber
extensive task to achieve. Houses"
Oliver and Betts [2] point out the emerging Design can, as mentioned, include many tasks
information technologies in the architectural depending on the definition of design. The focus in
profession and decision support systems (DSS) for the project "Design Automation for Multi-storey
the design process is one of them. They predict that a Timber Houses" is mainly on stage of evaluating and
DSS for the design process will "go beyond merely designing the structure of multi-storey timber house.
providing timely information - they will be interactive This project has thereby a more narrow limitation
with the design process. By using previous "cases" than the ABS approach. The "developer's
and a selective procedure the system will make requirements" in ABS can be compared with the
alterations to drawings. As an example, given a architectural constraints presented in this study (see
bathroom plan and a specification, the system would Figure 1). The constraints serve as requirements on
plan the most optimum layout for both ergonomic design automation algorithms that are supposed to
considerations and those of the mechanical select the most cost-effective technical solution and
servicing. " design the selected solution within a given set of
architectural constraints. The result will finally be
There are already much work done within the transformed to an object-oriented product model.
design automation field, both scientific and
commercial. Various works can have different
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The "intelligent" part (evaluation and selection) of identified as crucial for the structural design of multi-
the algorithms can be done with different approaches. storey timber houses. The chosen design parameters
Object-oriented analysis [4-5] and case-based [6-8] are based on results presented in [I].
reasoning are two common approaches in expert
systems. They are both possible to apply on the
evaluation and selection part of the algorithms but 4. INQUIRY METHOD
there is a significant obstacle to apply case-based
reasoning on design of multi-storey timber houses in The choice of wood as structural alternative in
Sweden. A comprehensive case library is a central Sweden started in 1994 after the deregulation of the
part of case-based reasoning and such a case library Swedish building market in 1993. From 1994 up to
is not possible to create today since the available may 1998 there were nine residential multi-storey
cases for multi-storey timber houses are very limited (3 storeys or more) timber houses completed in
due to earlier (up to 1994) regulations that did not Sweden. All of the architects involved in these
allow multi-storey timber houses. Therefore the projects were contacted and all of them accepted to
object-oriented analysis approach seems to be a more take part in this study.
suitable approach in this project.
A questionnaire was prepared including the
design parameters discussed in section 3. The
3. ARCHITECTURAL CONSTRAINTS questions were generally designed to find out the
range and the importance of each design parameter.
What is the characteristic of the constraints, The first part of a question was open-ended to find
caused by the architects' decisions, that affect the out the architect's view on the range of the design
choice of technical solutions in timber engineering parameter. The second part of a question had four
and especially in design of multi-storey houses? This alternatives from A (unimportant = not or little
question was given in the introduction section and the variable) to D (very important = high degree of
reason behind the question can be find in Figure 1. variability) to find out the importance of each design
The exterior and interior design of multi-storey parameter.
timber house done by the architect affect the entire
following design process. Today the structural Each of the architects were visited an interviewed.
engineer manually processes the constraints given by The answers from the interviews were then printed
the architect, i.e. he evaluates the constraints, selects down from the recordings and sent back to each
a suitable structural alternative and perform the architect together with an explanation of the
structural design. In order to automate this process it importance alternatives (A-D) for each question. The
is important to predict what requirements the architects were requested to validate their answers
architects can have on different design parameters. according to the printed answers and the attached
This study is performed to provide the characteristic explanation. Finally all of the answers were compiled
of the architectural constraints, i.e. to find out the in order to draw further conclusions.
architects' view on the range and importance of
different design parameters in multi-storey timber
houses. 5. INQUIRY RESULTS
A formal and useful definition of constraints and The results presented in this section are a very
design parameters is given in [ 9]. Constraints condensed version of the results from the interviews
represent the bound on an acceptable solution and are with the architects. It is only the second part of each
of two kinds: " input constraints , which are question, i.e. the importance of each design
constraints in design specifications, and system parameter, which is presented in this paper. A paper
constraints , which are constraints imposed by the comprising the questions and the answers to the first
system in which the design solution must function." parts of the questions will be presented later on.
The architectural constraints are according to the In the leftmost column in Table 1 below the
definition input constraints . The design algorithms average ranking point of each design parameter is
must of course consider the system constraints as well given with the range 1-4. After that the design
but that is not discussed in this paper . Design parameters are given, then each architect's ranking
parameters are defined as "the key variables that point and the four last columns contain an
characterize the physical entity created by the design explanation of each importance alternative (A-D).
process to fulfill the functional requirements". The importance is quantified so that A=1, B=2, C=3
and D=4. That means that e.g. a ranking point 4
The questions in the inquiry presented in section 5 correspond to continuos variability in column D.
are derived from about 40 design parameters that are
18 3
Table I. The architects ranking of each design parameter
VARIABILITY
Design Architects
None Some Discrete Continuos
Parameter
1 1 2 1314 1516 1718 A (1) B (2) C (3) D(4)
4.0 Roof slope 44 44 44 44 E.g. 1:1, 1:2, 1:5, Exact slope can be
E.g. 1:2 E.g. 1:1 or 1:2
1:10, 1:16, ... given
Placement of
4.0 4 4 4 4 4 14 14 1 4 Pre-defined Only the long sides All walls All walls + corners
balcony
3.5 Bays Not possible to E.g. a couple bay E.g. several models
43 33 34 44 Free design
indicate models of bays
Wood and metal C + brick and
3.5 Facade material 3 4 4 4 3 13 14 13 A + plaster B + sheet materials
I sheet concrete
A number of Stan All standard doors All standard doors C + non standard
3.3 Types of doors 4 3 4 3 3.3 3 3 dard doors from one from one from several doors designed by
manufacturer manufacturer manufacturers the architect
1 84
VARIABILITY Zf^M
Design Architects
None Some 77 Discrete ont -ILcs
a° Parameter
]2 3 4 5 6 7 8 A (1) B (2) C (3) D(4)
Geometry of the Polygon with free C + circles, ellipses
Polygon with right
3.1 house can be 33 33 43 33 A rectangle angles and circle segments
angles
. build up by:
Width of the E.g. 3.60, 3.70, Exact width can be
3.1 33 33 34 33 E.g. 3.60 in E.g. 3.60 or 4.20 m given
room 3.80, 3.9 0, ....m
saddle roof + A + mansard roof B + eccentric saddle C + arched roof
3.1 Roof types 32 44 43 32
- -pentroof and hipped roof and saw tooth roof
E.g. 2.80, 2.90, Exact height can be
3.0 Storey height 33 E.g. 2.80 m E.g. 2.80 or 3.10 m 3.00, 3. 10, ....m given
limited number of Width and height
opening sizes e.g. Exact size can be
3.0 Size of opening 33 Pre-defined can be varied in given
600x600 , 900x900,
step of e.g. 100 mm
800x1200. .....mm
Through or not Through apart- B + not through for C + not through for
through apart - Not possible to ments and not inner apartments apartment reaching
30 indicate through for gable
ments (width (single sided) from gable to gable
direction ) apartments
Floor to ceiling E.g. 2.40, 2.50, Exact height can be
30 33 E.g. 2.40 in E.g. 2.40 or 2.80 m 2.60, 2.70, ....m given
height
E.g. Each 600 mm Each 100 mm both
Position of Exact position can
(horizontally) and
3.0 opening in 33 43 33 23 Pre-defined horizontally and be given
e .g. 0, 600, 800 mm vertically
facade (breast work hight)
Geometry of the Polygon with tree C + circles, ellipses
Polygon with right
2.9 apartment can be 3 2 4 3 3 3 2 3 A rectangle and circle segments
angles angles
build upby:
Placement of E.g. several pre
E.g. a couple pre - Any placement
2.8 sanitary 31 33 23 43 Pre-defined dined placements
dined placements
installations
E.g. several types of Exact noise
E.g. insulated or not
Internal noise standard walls with reduction value can
2.5 32 33 32 22 Pre defined insulated interior
reduction level given noise
wall be given
reduction value
Height Between and with
Not possible to Between and within
2.4 disp lacements of 3 2 4 2 2 2 2 2 Between staircases staircases and
indicate staircases
the house within apartmen' f
Level differences Not possible to E.g, a fixed 0.15 in E.g. 0.05, 0.10 and Exact level ditty
2 .0 1 2 3 2 2 2 1212 1
0.15 m difference rence can be give
within apartment indicate difference
Occurrence of Draining gutter with
Not possible to Draining gutter with Any placement
1.6 draining gutter In 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 4 several possible
indicate fixed position
bath room positions
Possibilities to
E.g. a couple pre- E.g. several pre- Any position
1.5 move Interior 31 21 21 11 Not possible
defined positions defined positions
walls
Possibilities to
move apartment E.g. a couple pre- E.g. several pre- Any position
11 12 11 11 11 Not possible
separating defined positions defined positions
bearing walls
The results in Table I are given in falling ranking- automation algorithms than a design parameter that
order with the design parameters with highest can be made to a constant that does not have to be
ranking-point first. Generally the result shall be automated at all.
interpreted so that if a design parameter have a high An implication for the ranking-points in Table I is
ranking-point the degree of variability must be high to let each of the design parameters be assigned to the
and if the design parameter have a low ranking-point level of variability (A-D) that the ranking-point
the degree of variability only have to be modest or shows. For example a design parameter with a
not variable at all to satisfy the architects' ranking point between 2.6 and 3.5 can be assigned a
requirements. That means that a design parameter C (3) degree of variability. That would involve that
with high ranking-point require more of the design e.g. the design parameter "Placement of sanitary
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Aut.
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