Ontology-based representations of user activity and flexible space information: towards an automated space-use analysis in buildings

Space-use analysis offers quantitative and reliable references to support architects' decision-making regarding the planning and design of flexible spaces. To allow for automated space-use analyses of such flexible space, it is imperative to create activity and space ontologies that offer systematic and explicit forms representing user activities and the spaces in which they occur. Therefore, this study extends the current research on activity ontologies in order to capture flexible space-use patterns for user activities and develops a new space ontology by abstracting the information related to both flexible and nonflexible spaces. In addition, this study formalizes a framework for an automated space-use analysis implementation process that predicts and updates flexible space utilization by integrating user activity with flexible space. This work contributes to performance-based building design by providing a common, computer-interpretable vocabulary for representing user activities and flexible spaces and a framework for an automated space-use analysis implementation process that informs space utilization (i.e., a space efficiency measurement).