Research focusΒΆ

The purpose of this research is threefold. First, it proposes a practical framework for architectural and engineering design which, in collaboration with a human designer, can enable generation, evaluation, articulation, and effective communication of Design Intelligence (DI). Creating and applying such a framework on real-life design problems also affords an investigation on the nature of DI, its relationship to human and computational intelligence, and the role it can play in building a new design intuition that is grounded on design performance. Second, it attempts to bring powerful ideas and practices from the fields of Game AI and Procedural Content Generation and investigates the potential synergies and opportunities for knowledge and practice transfer between these domains and the domain of Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC). Third, it focuses on tethering the research and ideas researched onto practice by implementing a software version of the tool and applying it on different problems across the spectrum of activities in the AEC. These case studies will range both in terms of application, including urban design, building and layout design, and construction implementation (through the lens of offsite manufacturing) but also in terms of scale, from larger urban areas to single sites, whole floor plans to single dwellings, and from designing a single component to a kit of parts.