Identity and Geometry of Building Elements in Co-Design

Research Project 20-2 (RP 20-2)

THE IDENTITY AND GEOMETRY OF BUILDING ELEMENTS IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY CO-DESIGN OF BUILDINGS

This project sets out research methodologies to manage the identity of building elements in models of buildings and to integrate the geometry of building elements with their semantics. In the previous Research Project, RP 20-1, we have developed a methodology and a tool to connect ontologies (i.e. vocabularies for knowledge representation) from different Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) disciplines and showed how some constraint violations can be detected at earlier stages of the design process. In this project we will investigate two shortcomings in current methodologies: 

  1. The lack of consistent management of design component identities. Currently, when an architect modifies a column (e.g. changes its design from round to square, or moves it), a new file is created, with a new identifier for the column. It is unclear when the column should have the same identity or when a new identity should be created. Moreover, the rule for the architectural discipline may not be the same as for the structural engineer calculating the column load. 
  2. The limited expressiveness of semantic languages with respect to geometric constraints. Semantic relationships, such as the columns that support a beam, are not explicit in architectural models. Although these relationships can be inferred from the geometry of building elements, this inference is not automatic. This lack of integration of semantics and geometry prevents the detection of violated design constraints until it is too late, i.e. after construction has started. 

To address these issues, we will extend the knowledge-driven framework and design methodology developed in the first part of this project, to support reasoning methods that involve the identity of design components and their geometries. We will develop an ontology and rules for reasoning about the component identity, and we will select a set of core geometric operators and map them to semantic relations that can be integrated into knowledge representation and planning languages. We will evaluate the developed methodologies by applying them to selected building designs and/or parts of the demonstrator developed in the Cluster of Excellence IntCDC. 

 

PARTICIPATING RESEARCHER

Prof. Dr. Steffen Staab 
Institute for Artificial Intelligence (KI), University of Stuttgart 
Tenure-Track Prof. Dr. Thomas Wortmann
Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD-CA), University of Stuttgart 
Prof. Dr. Mathias Niepert
Institute for Artificial Intelligence (KI), University of Stuttgart 

TEAM

Tanja Bien (KI)
Diellza Elshani (ICD)
Fathya Zemmouri (KI)

 

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

  1. 2024

    1. Asma, Z., Hernández, D., Galárraga, L., Flouris, G., Fundulaki, I., & Hose, K. (2024, May). NPCS: Native Provenance Computation for SPARQL. Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2024 (WWW ’24), May13--17, 2024, Singapore, Singapore. WWW ’24, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1145/3589334.3645557
    2. Bauscher, E., Dai, A., Elshani, D., & Wortmann, T. (2024). Learning and Generating Spatial Concepts of Modernist Architecture via Graph Machine Learning. ACCELERATED DESIGN: Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Computer-Aided  Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), Volume1, 159–168.
    3. Elshani, D., Dervishaj, A., Hernández, D., Gudmundsson, K., Staab, S., & Wortmann, T. (2024). An Ontology for the Reuse and Tracking of Prefabricated Building Components. Proceedings of the The 2nd International Workshop on Knowledge Graphs for Sustainability (KG4S 2024) Colocated with the 21st Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2024), 3753, 53–64. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3753/paper5.pdf
    4. Seifer, P., Hernández, D., Lämmel, R., & Staab, S. (2024, May). From Shapes to Shapes: Inferring SHACL Shapes for Results of SPARQL CONSTRUCT Queries. Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2024 (WWW ’24), May13--17, 2024, Singapore, Singapore. WWW ’24, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1145/3589334.3645550
  2. 2023

    1. Elshani, D., Hernandez, D., Lombardi, A., Siriwardena, L., Schwinn, T., Fisher, A., Staab, S., Menges, A., & Wortmann, T. (2023). Building Information Validation and Reasoning Using Semantic Web Technologies. In M. Turrin, C. Andriotis, & A. Rafiee (Eds.), Computer-Aided Architectural Design. INTERCONNECTIONS: Co-computing Beyond Boundaries (pp. 470--484). Springer Nature Switzerland.
    2. Galárraga, L., Hernández, D., Katim, A., & Hose, K. (2023). Visualizing How-Provenance Explanations for SPARQL Queries. In Y. Ding, J. Tang, J. F. Sequeda, L. Aroyo, C. Castillo, & G.-J. Houben (Eds.), Companion Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2023, WWW 2023, Austin, TX, USA, 30 April 2023 - 4 May 2023 (pp. 212–216). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3543873.3587350
    3. Gregucci, C., Nayyeri, M., Hernández, D., & Staab, S. (2023). Link Prediction with Attention Applied on Multiple Knowledge Graph Embedding Models. In Y. Ding, J. Tang, J. F. Sequeda, L. Aroyo, C. Castillo, & G.-J. Houben (Eds.), Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2023 (pp. 2600–2610). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3543507.3583358
  3. 2022

    1. Elshani, D., Lombardi, A., Fisher, A., Staab, S., Hernández, D., & Wortmann, T. (2022, May). Knowledge Graphs for Multidisciplinary Co-Design: Introducing RDF to BHoM. In Proceedings of LDAC2022 - 10th Linked Data in Architecture and Construction Workshop. LDAC2022 - 10th Linked Data in Architecture and Construction Workshop, Hersonissos, Greece. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3213/
    2. Elshani, D., Lombardi, A., Fisher, A., Staab, S., Hernández, D., & Wortmann, T. (2022, September). Inferential Reasoning in Co-Design Using Semantic Web Standards alongside BHoM. Proceedings of 33. Forum Bauinformatik.
    3. Elshani, D., Wortmann, T., & Staab, S. (2022, May). Towards Better Co-Design with Disciplinary Ontologies: Review and Evaluation of Data Interoperability in the AEC Industry. In Proceedings of LDAC2022 - 10th Linked Data in Architecture and Construction Workshop. LDAC2022 - 10th Linked Data in Architecture and Construction Workshop, Hersonissos, Greece.
    4. Wortmann, T., Herschel, M., Staab, S., & Tarín, C. (2022). AI for AEC: KI für Bauplanung und Bau. Bautechnik, 99(10), Article 10. https://doi.org/10.1002/bate.202200070

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

  1. 2024

    1. Blomqvist, E., García-Castro, R., Hernández, D., Hitzler, P., Lindecrantz, M., & Poveda-Villalón, M. (Eds.). (2024). Proceedings of the The 2nd International Workshop on Knowledge Graphs for Sustainability (KG4S 2024) colocated with the 21st Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2024) (Vol. 3753). CEUR. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3753/

DATA SETS

  1. 2024

    1. Asma, Z., Hernandez, D., Galárraga, L., Flouris, G., Fundulaki, I., & Hose, K. (2024). Code and benchmark for NPCS, a Native Provenance Computation for SPARQL. DaRUS. https://doi.org/10.18419/darus-3973
    2. Seifer, P., Hernández, D., Lämmel, R., & Staab, S. (2024). Code for From Shapes to Shapes. DaRUS. https://doi.org/10.18419/darus-3977
  2. 2023

    1. Elshani, D., Lombardi, A., Hernández, D., Staab, S., Fisher, A., & Wortmann, T. (2023). BHoM to bhOWL converter. DaRUS. https://doi.org/10.18419/darus-3364
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