Abstract The work described in this paper is part of a larger research aimed at developing design aids for architects to be incorporated in intelligent CAD systems. Current work is concerned with the generation of rectangular layouts. Here, we are looking for those rectangular floor plans only which are best connected, i.e., their adjacency graph must have maximum number of edges that is equal to 3n − 7 where n is the number of rooms. Generating best connected floor plans is important because, most likely, the adjacency graph of a floor plan solution to a given architectural problem is a sub-graph of the graphs of the best connected ones. As such, in this paper, we propose an algorithm, which automatically generates best connected rectangular floor plans with extra spaces. The extra spaces can be seen as corridors, terraces, garden, parking space etc. Also, we propose some optimization techniques to reduce the size of extra spaces present inside the best connected floor plans.As part of a larger research aimed at developing design aids for architects, this paper presents the “automated” generation of the “best connected” rectangular floor plans, satisfying given topological and dimensional constraints. It has been seen that architects, knowingly or unknowingly, have often used either the golden rectangle or the Fibonacci rectangle in their works throughout history. But it was hard to find any specific reason for such use, other than aesthetic. In 2015, Shekhawat [1] showed that they are among the best connected rectangular arrangements (dimensionless rectangular floor plans) and that this may well be another reason for their frequent use in architectural design. In this work, an alternative algorithm is presented, which generates n – 3 best connected rectangular arrangements, being n the number of rooms. Then, this concept is further extended for constructing the best connected dimensioned rectangular floor plans. The goal is to provide an optimal solution for the rectangular space allocation problem, while satisfying given topological and dimensional requirements.
Keywords Algorithm, Adjacency, Design, Floor plan
]]>