Automated Space Layout Planning Application for Residential Modular Building

The urgency of the global housing crisis cannot be overstated. An estimated 96,000 new homes are required every single day to meet growing demand. This shortage is driven by rapid urbanization, population growth, and escalating affordability issues, creating unprecedented pressure on housing supply chains. Modular construction offers a powerful solution. By manufacturing building modules in controlled factory environments and assembling them on-site, Modular buildings can drastically shorten project timelines, lower costs, and reduce labour requirements, making them uniquely suited to address the housing shortage. However, one major challenge remains: the process of designing efficient, functional layouts for modular units is complex, time-consuming, and often requires costly manual revisions. This project directly overcomes that challenge by developing an automated space layout planning application specifically tailored to modular buildings, incorporating factory specifications, production capacity, and logistical constraints from the outset. The system intelligently integrates architectural standards with manufacturing, transportation, and assembly requirements, generating optimal residential layouts that maximize space efficiency, functionality, and adaptability, while significantly cutting design time and costs. By streamlining one of the most time-intensive phases of modular projects, this innovation enables faster, more affordable delivery of high-quality modular housing, helping to close the gap in the global housing crisis.

The automated space layout planning application developed in this project resolves the core challenge of inefficient and time-consuming design processes in modular construction by producing factory-ready layouts from the outset. It integrates architectural standards with module factory specifications, production capacity, transportation constraints, and on-site assembly requirements into a single, intelligent design workflow. Manufacturers can use the application to ensure that every module design is aligned with their production lines, downtime, and costs. By aligning layouts with factory capabilities, the tool minimizes disruptions during manufacturing and streamlines the transition from design to production. Architects and designers benefit from the ability to quickly generate and compare multiple layout options that meet both functional and manufacturing criteria. This significantly shortens the design phase, enabling faster project initiation while improving space efficiency, occupant flow, and adaptability for future changes. On an industry scale, the solution’s impact compounds; small gains in efficiency for a single modular layout led to significant savings when applied across hundreds or thousands of identical units. This scalability is essential for unlocking modular buildings’ potential for quick, affordable housing and other large infrastructure projects, ensuring speed, quality, and cost-effectiveness are maintained without sacrificing functionality or design.