SpaceMAP - Applying Meta-Heuristics to Real World Space Allocation Problems in Academic Institutions

Space allocation is an important issue in the university sector [1]. Frequently, the utilisation of the estate is calculated as the product of the frequency of use of individual rooms and the associated occupancy at a particular time. Then, poorly utilised estate results in significant over expenditure on both capital and operational budgets across the sector. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) reported a mean frequency value of 51% across UK institutions and a mean occupancy rate of 52%. This gives a mean utilisation rate of 26.5%. The main reason for this massive inefficiency in use of space is the poor allocation of space within the institutions. Therefore, an automated system that takes into consideration user defined constraints to calculate, through algorithms, the best allocation of activities to rooms would help to improve enormously the efficiency of space utilisation. Here, activities are defined as any event that requires resources to support its delivery. Examples of activities include: staff, lectures, laboratories, research, tutorials, etc. Currently, due to the complexity of the issues involved and the associated intricate constraints, activities are allocated to rooms through manual processes that cannot reflect the most efficient manner of achieving this allocation. We aim to provide an automated system that replaces the manual process with one that is based on achieving the most efficient and effective allocation of activities to spaces, leading to considerable capital and operational cost savings for the institution.