Human Activities In Knowledge-Based Architectural Design Systems

A knowledge-based system consists of two main components, the knowledgebase and the inference mechanism. The former contains the problem solving knowledge, and the later provides the reasoning mechanisms to control this knowledge in finding a solution. Control mechanisms generally depend on the 'structure' and 'type' of design knowledge represented in the knowledgebase. This paper focuses on the 'type' of design knowledge used in computational design environments. The paper discuss prototypical information in knowledge-based design systems, and suggests a functional type of knowledge for usage in such systems in order to achieve a degree of generalization in the domain of space design. A function in an architectural space depends on the activities that accomplish it. The paper focuses on human activities and how they may provide the means to semantically describe architectural spaces in different building types.