Case Based Preliminary Building Design

A team of civil engineers, architects and computer scientists is using CaseBased Design (CBD) as an approach for integrating preliminary architectural and structural design. This approach focuses on dimensional and topological adaptation of geometric models of existing buildings in order to find solutions for new design problems. An advantage of such an approach is that a case is used in which integration has already been achieved and the design process is therefore one of adapting the case to achieve new goals whilst maintaining the original building features. Conclusions of this work are that cases consisting of a geometrical building model both simplify design knowledge acquisition and provide a valuable initial integrated design solution which serves as a useful starting point to the design process.