Building Layout Explorer is an experimental feature in Forma Site Design
Designing buildings has always been an iterative process–exploring options, testing constraints, and refining trade-offs. What’s changing now is the speed and scale of that iteration, as AI helps teams to explore more options and evaluate ideas earlier in the design process. Today, we’re making Building Layout Explorer available as an experimental feature for commercial Forma Site Design users with data stored in the US. Building Layout Explorer is a generative AI capability that helps teams generate and evaluate floor plan options from a massing model within Forma Site Design, before detailed project decisions are locked in.
By providing this to users at an early stage of development, we’re inviting the industry to help us co-create and meet their needs better, faster. We encourage architects and designers to experiment, share their thoughts, and help us continue to improve its capabilities.
Building Layout Explorer in Forma Site Design generates floor plan options for a multi-family building.
Powered by generative AI models trained on aggregated 3D AEC data, Building Layout Explorer creates floor plan layout options informed by architectural context such as massing, building type, and structural material. As it is integrated directly into Forma Site Design, teams can experiment with AI-assisted layout exploration within the same environment they already use for conceptual design workflows. This capability is part of Autodesk’s broader neural CAD vision for AEC. Our goal is not simply to generate more layout options, but to explore how AI can help architects and designers evaluate trade-offs and make better-informed decisions earlier in the design process. Achieving that vision requires that design exploration connect with the broader context of a project; the workflows, project data, and decisions teams make along the way. And that is what we’re building with Forma, the AECO industry cloud, where connected workflows, project context, and intelligence come together across the project lifecycle.
Building Layout Explorer in Forma Site Design generates floor plan options for an office building.
We believe AI becomes more useful in AEC when it is grounded in real workflows, project context, and industry-specific data, not isolated from the realities of how buildings are actually designed and delivered. This experimental launch is the first step, and we recognize some outputs will be more useful than others as Building Layout Explorer continues to evolve. By working alongside our customers and learning from their feedback, we can continue to iterate on the experience and its outputs as the workflow matures and becomes a valuable part of early design.