ARCHPLAN : an architectural planning front end to engineering design expert systems

ARCHPLAN is a knowledge-based ARCHitectural PLANning front end to a set of vertically integrated engineering expert systems. ARCHPLAN is part of a larger project to explore the principles of parallel operation of expert systems in an Integrated Building Design Environment. It is designed to operate in conjunction with HIRISE, a structural design expert system; with CORE and SPACER, two expert systems for the spatial layout of buildings; and with other knowledge based systems dealing with construction planning, specification, and foundation design. ARCHPLAN operates either in connection with these expert systems or as a stand-alone program. It consists of three major parts: the application, the user interface, and the graphics package.The application offers a knowledge based approach towards the conceptual design of high rise office buildings, taking into account qualitative and quantitative considerations. Strategies used for design are prototype refinement, evaluation, and local optimization. The four major modules in the ARCHPLAN application deal with massing, building functions, vertical building circulation, and structure. The user interface provides a graphical environment for the interactive design of buildings and monitoring program states.The graphics package allows the workstation to function as the external representation medium of design decisions made by the user and the application. A particular emphasis of ARCHPLAN is to explore the usefulness of object-oriented programming techniques to support the abstract representations of the design process and the resulting building.