The design space exploration assistance method: constraints and objectives

In the early design stages of buildings, architects cope with a multitude of decisions that affect the later performance of the building. Most of these decisions have a fundamental impact on the building design - later changes are impossible or require a very high effort. When taking these decisions, numerous constraints and objectives have to be considered. With today’s mainly manual design workflows, only very few design options can be elaborated and evaluated against the various performance criteria. In consequence, the design space (the space of all possible design options) is explored only to a very limited extend and finding a good solution depends strongly on the experience of the designing architect. To cope with this issue and to better support architects in the early design stage, we are developing the Design Space Exploration Assistance Method (DSEAM). The method aims at applying techniques of advanced computation to provide comprehensive information and design options. To provide a sound foundation for this method, this paper investigates how relevant and evaluable the individual objectives and performance criteria are. In addition, we discuss the importance of geometric constraints in building design and describe an approach which allows architects to define them in an intuitive interactive graphical manner.