Revitalization of Existing Buildings through Sustainable Non-Destructive Floor Space Relocation

The revitalisation of existing buildings is getting more and more important. We are facing a situation where in many cases there is no need to design new buildings because an increasing number of existing buildings is not used anymore. The most ecological procedure to revitalise these buildings would be through a continuous usage and by making few or no alterations to the stock. Thus, the modus operandi could be named a “non-destructive” approach. From the architects' point of view, non-destructive redesign of existing buildings is time-consuming and complex. The methodology we developed to aid architects in solving such tasks is based on exchanging or swapping utilisation of specific rooms to converge in a design solution. With the aid of mathematical rules, which will be executed by the use of a computer, solutions to floor space relocation problems will be generated. Provided that “design” is in principle a combinatorial problem, i.e. a constraint-based search for an overall optimal solution of a problem, an exemplary method will be described to solve such problems