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A generative design approach for modular construction in congested urban areas

Yuxi Wei (Department of Civil Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada)
Hyungjoo Choi (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA)
Zhen Lei (Department of Civil Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada)

Smart and Sustainable Built Environment

ISSN: 2046-6099

Article publication date: 20 July 2021

Issue publication date: 1 December 2022

902

Abstract

Purpose

Modular construction is widely adopted and used in the construction industry to improve construction performance with respect to both efficiency and productivity. The evaluation of design options for modular construction can be iterative, and thus automation is required to develop design alternatives. This research aims to explore the potential of utilizing the generative design approach to automate modular construction for residential building structures in urban areas such as New York City.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed research methodology is investigated for a systematic approach to parametrize design parameters for modular construction layout design as well as incorporate design rules/parameters into modularizing design layouts in a Building Information Modeling (BIM) environment. Based on current building codes and necessary inputs by the user, the proposed approach enables providing recommendations in a generative design method and optimizes construction processes by performing analytical calculations.

Findings

The generative design has been found to be efficient in generating layout designs for modular construction based on parametric design. The integration of BIM and generative design can allow industry practitioners to fast generate design layout with evaluations from constructability perspectives.

Originality/value

This paper has proposed a new approach of incorporating generative design with BIM technologies to solve module layout generations by considering design and constructability constraints. The method can be further extended for evaluating modular construction design from manufacturability and assembly perspectives.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the financial support from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canada (Alliance Grant: ALLRP 549126 - 19).

Citation

Wei, Y., Choi, H. and Lei, Z. (2022), "A generative design approach for modular construction in congested urban areas", Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 1163-1181. https://doi.org/10.1108/SASBE-04-2021-0068

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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