Computational Building Requirements Specification 1

We have been exploring appropriate computational techniques to help building designers specify design requirements during the early stages of design. SEED-Pro (the architectural programming module of SEED -- Software Environment to Support Early Phases in Building Design), is a working prototype for building design requirements specification. The core functionalities of SEED-Pro operate in an interactive mode relying on a case-based approach to retrieve and adapt complex specification records to the problem at hand. A number of support functionalities assist SEED-Pro including a data-base and a standards processing environment. Our results indicate that SEED-Pro: (1) is a tool that structures the unstructured domain of design requirements; (2) enables the integration of design requirements with the rest of the design process, and (3) enables the creation of comprehensive case-bases.