Evolution of architectural floor plans

Layout planning is a process of sizing and placing rooms (e.g. in a house) while a t t empt ing to optimize various criteria. Often the r e are conflicting c r i t e r i a such as construction cost, minimizing the distance between r e l a t ed activities, and meeting the area requirements for these activities. The process of layout planning ha s mostly been done by hand, wi th a handful of a t t empt s to automa t e the process. Thi s thesis explores some of these pa s t a t t empt s and describes several new techniques for automa t ing the layout planning process using evolutionary computation. These techniques a r e inspired by the existing methods, while adding some of the i r own innovations. Additional experimenLs are done to t e s t the possibility of allowing polygonal exteriors wi th rectilinear interior walls. Several multi-objective approaches are used to evaluate and compare fitness. The evolutionary r epr e s ent a t ion and requirements specification used provide great flexibility in problem scope and depth and is worthy of considering in future layout and design a t t empt s . The system outlined in thi s thesis is capable of evolving a variety of floor plans conforming to functional and geometric specifications. Many of the resulting plans look reasonable even when compared to a professional floor plan. Additionally polygonal and multi-floor buildings were also generated.

Ontario high school sport : an investigation of organizational design and its context

In 2002, The Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) identified that in providing extracurricular sport programs schools are faced with the 'new realities' of the education system. Although research has been conducted exploring the pressures impacting the provision of extracurricular school sport (Donnelly, Mcloy, Petherick, & Safai, 2000), few studies within the field have focused on understanding extracurricular school sport from an organizational level. The focus of this study was to examine the organizational design (structure, systems, and values) of the extracurricular sport department within three Ontario high schools, as well as to understand the context within which the departments exist. A qualitative multiple case study design was adopted and three public high schools were selected from one district school board in Ontario to represent the cases under investigation. Interviews, observations and documents were used to analyze the extracurricular sport department design of each case and to better understand the context within which the departments exist. As the result of the analysis of the structure, systems and values of each case, two designs emerged- Design KT1 and Design KT2. Differences in the characteristics of design archetype KT1 and KT2 centered on the design dimension of values, and therefore this study identified that contrasting organizational values reflect differences in design types. The characteristics of the Kitchen Table archetype were found to be transferable to the sub-sector of extracurricular school sport, and therefore this research provides a springboard for further research in organizational design within the education sector of extracurricular high school sport. Interconnections were found between the data associated with the external and internal contexts within which the extracurricular sport departments exist. The analysis of the internal context indicated the important role played by organizational members in shaping the context within which the departments exist. The analysis of the external context highlighted the institutional pressures that were present within the education environment. Both political and cultural expectations related to the role of extracurricular sport within schools were visible and were subsequently used by the high schools to create legitimacy and prestige, and to access resources.