A multi-storey building is a building that has multiple storeys, and typically contains vertical circulation in the form of ramps, stairs and lifts. They arise in urban areas where increased land prices and great population densities created a demand for buildings that rose vertically rather than spread horizontally, thus occupying less precious land area. By the mid-20th century, such buildings had become a standard feature of the architectural landscape in most countries in the world.

Ontological Development

An ontology for a multi-storey building system has been modeled into the program Protégé and subdivided following a physical, functional and logical decomposition. These decomposition have helped forming several Classes and Sub-classes, as well as the relations between them. A simplified visual representation of these relations will follow:

 

Following, the developed ontology in Protégé as a Super-link, as well as a visual representation:

multi-storey-building-ontology

Parametric Model

Once the most important aspects of the model were identified (elements, utilization, construction process, building requirements and structural analysis) as well as the relations between them, a number of parameters for each aspect was set. We focused on the relations that influence the physical embodiment of our model, for instance finding the required surface area for a specific utilization of the multi-storey building, in order to estimate its dimensions. This approach, resulted into following main input parameters:

• Available lot area in m² – the available surface ground area where the system will be built upon
• Shape of the lot area – shape limited to a rectangular with minimum length of 10 m per side
• Number of people using the building
• Utilization of the building – this influences the needed area per person in m² (22.50 m² for apartments, 15.50 m² for offices and 5 m² for schools)
• Storey height
• Thickness of walls

Following, the developed parameterised model in Dynamo as Super-link, as well as a visual representation:

multi-storey-building-dynamo