Semantic roomobjects for conceptuvil design support - A knowledge-based approach

The conceptual design at the beginning of the building construction process is essential for the success of a building project. Even if some CAD tools allow elaborating conceptual sketches, they rather focus on the shape of the building elements and not on their functionality. We introduce semantic room objects and roomlinks, by way of example to the CAD tool ArchiCAD. These extensions provide a basis for specifying the organisation and functionality of a building and free architects from being forced to directly produce detailed constructive sketches. Furthermore, we introduce consistency analyses of the conceptual sketch, based on an ontology containing conceptual relevant knowledge, specific to one class of buildings.