ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an approach of specifying building design through a set of common platforms with defined variations. Building design involves translating client requirements to a detailed design specification for construction. The productivity of building industry has been lagging behind the manufacturing and service industry sectors. In building construction, visibility of product of variety and commonality could lend itself to many applications such as bill of materials aggregations, design reuse and other applications. The development of Industry Foundation Classes, Industry Foundation Classes, is an important contribution supporting designer collaboration through standardized model-based exchange of building design data across applications. Common building modules are modules that are always included in every variant of the building product family. High-rise residential building is a building type where possibilities to achieve economies of scale through re-use of modules exist, particularly when modules are re-used across projects. The developed framework of building family structure presents several cost-and timesaving benefits.
