Automatic Furniture Layout

Research Project, at INESC-ID, Lisbon

Team: Sofia Feist, Guilherme Ilunga, António Menezes Leitão

Year: 2018

Programming Languages Used: Racket

Software Used: AutoCAD

This project was developed in collaboration with the Portuguese architectural studio Atelier dos Remédios. The project involved the rehabilitation of an old XIX century residential building into a fully functional hotel, with rooms of different configurations, shapes, and dimensions.

In order to explore different solutions and variations for the bedrooms, an algorithm was developed that generates different room solutions by changing the placement of the room equipment - the variable parameters. These include the bed, the wardrobe, the work table, the shower, the sink, and the toilet. The algorithm also considers as fixed input the dimensions of the rooms, the position of the doors and windows, the dimensions of each element in the rooms, as well as the circulation space needed to properly use them. With this information, the elements were stochastically placed and oriented within the boundaries of each room while following a set of constraints which ensured that the generated solutions would comply with both the constructability requirements and the architects’ intent. The result of this implementation is a set of different design solutions for each room. The work of this project is documented here.