~Tectom’s automated design AI provides a wealth of ideas to help design the best restroom layout in the shortest amount of time.

(Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Naoki Kitamura; hereafter “Tectom”) and Toyo Construction Co. The experiment was conducted using AI being developed by Tektom to automatically design restroom layouts. In this verification experiment, image generation AI technology based on deep learning was applied, and multiple restroom layouts were successfully designed automatically. Based on this success, Toyo Construction will begin operating the AI for automatic toilet layout design as the “AI Design Assistant. Tectom will further develop the results of this project to automate architectural design in a wider range of fields.

Background of this project
In the construction industry, the average annual working hours are long, and there is a shortage of labor. In design work, layout planning and design is carried out for residential floor plans, logistics warehouses, commercial facilities, etc. However, each project requires a repertoire of proposals and creativity due to the various requests from the client, which makes it time-consuming to plan and study a quality layout, or to reach the best layout in a short period of time. Therefore, it is time-consuming to plan and study a quality layout, and it is difficult to arrive at the best layout in a short time.

Against this backdrop, TOYO and Tectom began discussions in 2021 to conduct a demonstration experiment on automatic AI design of restroom layouts. The purpose of this demonstration experiment is to support the creative ideas of designers through the proposal of various toilet layouts generated by the automatic design AI.

2. Details and Results of this Project
In this experiment, we used not only the conventional genetic algorithm approach, but also a deep learning approach, and trained the AI on approximately 1,400 design drawings created by Toyo’s experienced designers in the past. By using this approach, it is possible to generate human-like designs that learn from the tendencies of past skilled engineers, without the need to write the vast number of rules required for automated design results.

Figure 1: A series of processes based on a deep learning approach

As a result of this approach, multiple layouts were successfully generated automatically by specifying the user-input toilet layout borders and male/female area designations, the number of large urinals, the number of urinals, toilet bowl size, and other conditions.

Figure 2: Image of multiple toilet layouts proposed by the automatic design AI

Based on this achievement, Toyo Construction will start operating an automatic toilet layout design AI using the AI platform “Tektome” as the “AI Design Assistant”.

3. Future Prospects
Tektome plans to further develop the results of this initiative in FY2023 and beyond, expanding the automatic layout design AI to various design domains, including logistics warehouses, offices, and medical facilities.

About TECTOM Corporation
Tektome is an AI solution company that provides the architectural design AI platform “Tektome”. Combining AI technologies such as large-scale language models, image analysis, image generation, and point cloud analysis, Tektome provides a platform that supports technology transfer and productivity improvement in architectural design based on company-specific architectural design data. Tectom will continue its research and development of AI for architectural design and realize an AI-based construction DX that draws skills from a vast amount of accumulated design know-how.

Company name: Tectom Inc.
Location: Tech Hiroo Building 7F, 1-10-5 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0012, Japan
Representative: Naoki Kitamura (Representative Director)
Establishment : 2020
URL : https://tektome.com/