ITcon Vol. 27, pg. 756-780, http://www.itcon.org/2022/37

BIM-based design decisions documentation using design episodes, explanation tags, and constraints

DOI:10.36680/j.itcon.2022.037
submitted:March 2022
revised:June 2022
published:July 2022
editor(s):Amor R
authors:Ata Zahedi, M.Sc.,
Chair of Architectural Informatics, Technical University of Munich, Germany;
ata.zahedi@tum.de (ORCID: 0000-0003-0296-9205)

Jimmy Abualdenien, M.Sc.,
Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation, Technical University of Munich, Germany;
jimmy.abualdenien@tum.de (ORCID: 0000-0002-8100-9861)

Frank Petzold, Prof. Dr.-Ing.,
Chair of Architectural Informatics, Technical University of Munich, Germany;
petzold@tum.de (ORCID: 0000-0001-8974-0926)

André Borrmann, Prof. Dr.-Ing.,
Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation, Technical University of Munich, Germany;
andre.borrmann@tum.de (ORCID : 0000-0003-2088-7254)
summary:The process of designing a building involves producing design concepts while fulfilling various requirements and regulations. Furthermore, during the project's life-cycle, multiple experts from multiple domains collaborate in developing the different partial models, including architectural, structural, and HVAC among others. Accordingly, clearly communicating the rationale behind design decisions is crucial for developing regulatory compliant designs that also fit the owner’s needs. The developed designs are the main deliverables exchanged and handed over. However, these deliverables do not include any explanation of design intentions or documentation of design decisions. Communication among parties and reuse of knowledge are hindered by the absent explanation of existing design. To overcome this deficiency, this paper proposes a methodology for digitally documenting design decisions, incorporating their intention and rationale. Architectural concepts and evaluation criteria are represented in the form of explanation tags as well as spatial and semantic constraints, which are assigned to the individual model elements and properties. Additionally, to document how design decisions fulfill owner requirements and regulatory documents, natural language processing (NLP) is employed to facilitate querying those documents and then the individual requirements are linked to specific elements, properties, and constraints. To evaluate the proposed methodology, a prototype was implemented as a plugin inside a BIM-Authoring tool and multiple real-world use cases are discussed.
keywords:Design Documentation, Design Constraints, Explanation Tags, Design Episodes, Request for Proposal, BIM, Early Design Stages
full text: (PDF file, 2.036 MB)
citation:Zahedi A, Abualdenien J, Petzold F, Borrmann A (2022). BIM-based design decisions documentation using design episodes, explanation tags, and constraints, ITcon Vol. 27, pg. 756-780, https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2022.037
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