housegen

Housegen is a term used to describe generative design systems that automatically create house designs or floor plans. In architecture and construction, a housegen tool typically combines parametric modeling, constraint solving, and optimization to produce a range of viable housing configurations that meet specified requirements such as site footprint, room program, climate performance, and budget.

Origins and scope: Housegen emerged with the broader adoption of parametric and generative design in the 2000s and 2010s. It is used within professional CAD environments as well as standalone software and game development tools. Common platforms include parametric design environments (e.g., Grasshopper) and game engines for procedural generation.

How it works: Users provide data—site dimensions, zoning constraints, programmatic needs, energy targets, and material preferences. The generative engine applies rules and optimization objectives to generate multiple design variants, which are scored according to performance metrics such as energy use, daylight, circulation efficiency, and cost. Outputs can include 3D models, floor plans, schedules, and sometimes construction documentation.

Applications and impact: In architecture and real estate, housegen enables rapid prototyping of housing schemes and supports design exploration at scale. In education, it demonstrates algorithmic design processes. In games and simulations, similar technology can procedurally populate neighborhoods with diverse housing forms. Critics note that automated design should be combined with human judgment to ensure livability, context, and housing quality.

See also: generative design, parametric design, procedural content generation, BIM, Grasshopper, CAD.