6.3 Suspended Ceiling Design Process - Bilkent University

parameters were defined according to the IFCs, this was not possible for
the suspended ceiling study; since, IFC definitions currently do not include
necessary parameters for suspended ceiling integration. However, the
importance of coordination of interdisciplinary information in suspended
ceiling design has recently forced IAI to develop a ceiling plenum
coordination project. The project aims to develop a tool that can check for
conflicts in suspended ceiling design according to explicit rules. The
proposed project will develop such explicit rules and other requirements
that plenum coordination imposes on the IFC project model. In the project
description sheet, it is explained that the most difficult part of the project
will be the initial establishment of the rules, but rules developed in the
project will serve as basis for customization of future and more specific
project rules (IAI North America, 2003). It is hoped that the analyses made
in this dissertation may facilitate for such integration efforts.
Having highlighted the different aspects of the two case studies, the rest of
this chapter discusses the suspended ceiling design case study. Following
a description of the system architecture, the suspended ceiling design
process is briefly outlined. Finally, the research procedure and the results
are discussed.
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