A House Design Automation System Based on the "Design-by-Novice" Paradigm

This research investigates a system for house design automation. The system is based on an object-oriented building data model, aiming to support the house design process conducted by non-expert users. Its object model, with simple yet powerful user interfaces, enables a CAD system to handle a complicated building system with much ease. Hence, the model dramatically simplifies the design process beyond just the automatic document generation. In this paper, we discuss the aspects of the building data model, introduce critical concepts such as grid objects and structured floor plan, and present a prototype system called GPLAN. The system is implemented in the framework of our building data model, and it provides a host of intelligent features that have been proved useful for house design automation.