Distributed Case-based Support for the Architectural Conceptualization Phase

For the early phase of conceptualization in the architectural design a case-based retrieval approach for finding building designs that have similar semantic and topological structures to a currently created one, can provide a helpful tool for inspiration and comparison of architect’s own ideas with the solutions available in a case base of previously created designs. The approach presented in this research summary is aimed to provide such a tool that can deal with queries and cases that can be represented as graphs. Moreover, in the late phases of the research, the approach should be extended for application beyond architectural design and provide a generic framework for distributed case-based search of similar graphs for other suitable domains. Constraints of the search, explanations, initialization of the case base, and the knowledge about user behaviour are the important aspects of the concept of the framework.