iDesignArch: Chatbot-supported architectural requirements management for inspiring building designs

Describing buildings and their internal structures is a complex architectural task. Nevertheless, a precise description is essential, especially if the description should enable the search for suitable building designs among existing models. Building Information Modelling (BIM), floor or zone plans simplify the description by providing a standardized format for mainly geometric information in different levels of detail. However, creating building representations for utilization as search input is time consuming and should be carried out by experienced users only. Therefore, this paper introduces a tool that enables architects and other stakeholders to gather relevant information by answering specific project related questions posed by the tool. It generates questions based on a developed decision tree and processes the answers, to gather as much information for an upcoming building project as possible. The resulting description is subsequently used as input for identifying similar digital building models from a database. This intelligent solution, which also allows inexperienced users to use it, offers an efficient and user-friendly way of recording and modifying building requirements in order to gain inspiration from existing similar buildings for the design, conversion or modernization of a building or part of a building.