IC-Checker: Rapid Evaluation and Optimization of Industrialized Construction Systems for Buildings Designs
Research Team
Our Motivation:
"Industrialized Construction (IC) systems have their own design rules and constraints that may be incompatible with the preliminary design or project requirements. My experiences showed me that compatibility checking and eventually adapting the IC system are lengthy and costly tasks that could benefit from automated solutions."
Research Contribution
1.) A modeling framework for describing IC technical systems that enable computational design and automated checking for Industrialized Construction. This modeling framework would provide a basis for construction companies to describe IC technical systems and analyze them.
2.) A methodology to automatically generate building designs based on an IC technical system and automatically check if the generated designs meet the project performances objectives, defined by the architectural design.
Problem
Practical Problem
Successful industrialized construction (IC) companies are significantly different from traditional construction (TC) companies, in terms of culture, organization, and process.
One of the most essential differences in the project process of IC companies versus TC companies is the development of conceptual design into detailed design and construction documents.
Many IC companies have adopted a form of vertical integration and act also as project developers or designers, designing with their technical systems characteristics in mind.
On the opposite, traditional construction companies performing Design-Bid-Build projects, receive an already developed design and must figure out the construction technical systems to build it. TC companies need to check that the characteristics (Fig. 1) and capabilities of the IC system are compatible with the conceptual design.
Currently, construction companies rely on manual processes to accomplish these tasks, adding time, costs, and risks to the project.
Solution
Building up on the construction part definition (Zhao, 2017), we propose to develop an ontology to describe IC technical systems and their design constraints.
The intuition is that IC systems can be described by two main features:
- A set of components – or parts library- that follow parametric dimensioning rules related to their performance – or behavior-, for example, structural or costs.
- A list of assembly rules describes how parts can be connected and put together into a performing technical system, and ultimately a building.
We will develop a methodology that takes an IC system, describes a list of parts, and explore all the possibilities to combine them following the assembly rules to generate designs that meet the project performance objectives.
Added Value For The Industry
When successfully translated into practice, this methodology should enable the generalization of computational design tools that will enable faster analysis of construction for use of Industrialized Construction.
It will save time and costs on development of detailed design on projects attempting to use Industrialized Construction technical Systems and enable faster and more informed decision on these projects.
That will reduce risks of traditional construction companies adopting IC practices. This will ultimately enable wider adoption of Industrialized Construction within the AEC industry.
Cooperation Partner
Timeline
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Date |
Activity |
Outcome |
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| Step 1 |
Mai 2022 |
Research became awarded: IC-Checker: Rapid Evaluation and Optimization of Industrialized Construction Systems for Buildings Design |
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Sep. 2022 |
Focused interviews with experts (until Dec. 2022) |
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Case studies of 1+ IC Systems (until Feb. 2023) |
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Dec. 2022 |
Develop ontology for IC systems design rules (until April 2023) |
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| Step 2 |
Year 2023 |
Leverage Legalization and Multidisciplinary Design Analysis & Optimization techniques for fast Architectural Design Analysis |
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| Step 3 |
June 2023 |
Pilot test on 1 real project (until Sep. 2023) |
If you want to participate in the project please reach out to Lou Sacchettini