Launch HN: Drafted (YC P26) – Models for residential architecture

This is interesting and cool for entertainment, but it's extremely hard to picture using this as a replacement for an architect.

We're building an ADU right now and the floorplan design was a very small part of what our architect did. So much more of the value came from the relationships he has with the structural and geotechnical engineers we used as well as the relationship with our city building department.

This really strikes me as a product in search of a problem.

Maybe a homeowner could use this for initial planning before finding an architect to use, but at that point you're competing with pencil and paper.

There is probably more money in this as entertainment than architecture. And less liability.

How many of us have made house plans at some point?

I just looked at the very first one featured on your website ("Sprawling Dark 5 Bed")[1]:

- A car parked in the garage perpendicular to the door and the other differently-sized car

- A bedroom missing a closet

- Attached bathrooms with multiple sinks

- An office with a weird entrance from a dead space from the garage

- External doors that open the wrong way (against fire code in most places)

- Closet doors opening inward

- Both doors of the top-left bathroom opens into the sinks (why two sinks?)

- The top-left bathroom has a weird dead space between the shower and bathtub (why both?)

- the random little floating feature in the middle of the open floorplan space doesn't make any structural or aesthetic sense

- The two bedrooms in the lower left with the weird bump-out for the windows that make no sense

- The window placement for many windows don't make sense and don't even line up with the 3D view of the house

- The hallway on the left that turns and goes to nowhere for no reason

- The additional random inaccessible dead spaces next to the bottom right bathroom

It took me just a few minutes to see this. I hope nobody ever builds a home based on these plans.

[1] https://cdn.drafted.ai/thumb/drafts/23025/generations/94729/...

Edited for formatting, to add a few points I missed, and to add a link to the image

This is fun! I hadn't thought about how much possibility space there was in home layouts until now. Some layouts make a lot more sense than others.

I've thrown some weird setups at it like a high bedroom:bathroom ratio and it's doing a great job at distributing bathroom access between the bedrooms, and arranging the bedrooms around shared spaces.

Thanks for sharing.

im currently building a home. one of the biggest issues is FAR which is very much driven by local laws. are you intending on addressing that at some point ?

looks great btw. congrats

Going to give it a try! Would love to see an option for an engineering stamp for brace walls, hold downs, etc.

This is really cool!

First thing that came to mind is that I would use this for a sim city style video game

ADU's are extremely popular in California. Are you going to add support for designing ADU/garage conversions?

Do you support 2 story homes?

Great product from a great team!