We are excited to be featured in AECbytes’ article Bluethink House Designer: Automating the Re-use of Design Knowledge. AECbytes highlights Selvaag Bluethink’s House Designer (a Design++ application) as “An application far ahead of its times”
Bluethink House Designer is a rule-based design application developed by Selvaag Bluethink, a subsidiary of Norway’s Selvaag Group, aimed at automating the reuse of design knowledge in building projects. The tool is part of a suite that includes Bluethink Supervisor for project configuration and Bluethink Experience for knowledge management.
Designed for repetitive building types like single-family homes and multi-story apartments, Bluethink House Designer allowed users to sketch basic layouts using a Java-based interface. It utilized predefined rule sets to automatically determine elements such as door and window placements, wall configurations, roofing, and mechanical systems. The application also identified conflicts and provided design recommendations.
The rules were defined using Design++, a knowledge-based modeling solution later acquired by Bentley Systems. These rule sets were customized for different companies and regions, incorporating local building codes and best practices. The system featured both generative rules for design creation and evaluative rules for compliance checking.