• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.45-55
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• 2022

BIM models allow building spaces to be instantiated and recognized as unique objects independently of model elements. These instantiated spaces provide the required semantics that can be leveraged for building code checking, energy analysis, and evacuation route analysis. However, theses spaces or rooms need to be designated manually, which in practice, lead to errors and omissions. Thus, most BIM models today does not guarantee the semantic integrity of space designations, limiting their potential applicability. Recent studies have explored ways to automate space allocation in BIM models using artificial intelligence algorithms, but they are limited in their scope and relatively low classification accuracy. This study explored the use of Graph Convolutional Networks, an algorithm exclusively tailored for graph data structures. The goal was to utilize not only geometry information but also the semantic relational data between spaces and elements in the BIM model. Results of the study confirmed that the accuracy was improved by about 8% compared to algorithms that only used geometric distinctions of the individual spaces.