Integral Design to improve communication & sub-solution generation

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Session 1 Paper 1, Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, 14-15 April 2016

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The design of buildings becomes more complex and therefor a team effort right from the conceptual design phase. To support these diverse multidisciplinary building design teams, a supportive design method was developed in cooperation with the Dutch professional organizations of architects and consulting engineers. After an extensive study of existing design methods a new approach was developed. This integral design method is based on the use of morphological charts and a morphological overview. It helps architects and engineers with their new role in the conceptual design phase as it enables structuring of each perspective on the design task as well as structuring the available domain knowledge. By making all interpretations and ideas about the design task transparent it improves team members understanding about each other’s tasks. After testing the method in workshops as part of a training program in the industry, the design method was applied at the department of architecture by master students for their multidisciplinary master project Integral Design. Recently it was also applied within a design project in the industry. The design method showed that it is possible to support the communication within the design team and to increase the number of generated solutions significant.