In general, architectural design is a loosely structured, open-ended activity that includes problem definition, representation, performance evaluation, and decision making. A number of approaches have been proposed in the literature to organize, guide, and facilitate the design process. The main objective of this paper is to seek a logical and rigorous means to aid in developing an optimized design that is acceptable to the customer or user of the product. The convention design approaches heavily involve decision making, which is integral to the architectural design process and is an important element in nearly all phases of design. There is a need to reframe the decision-making process to transform and improve the design process in order for finial building to achieve the performance goals. The first step in making an effective design decision is to understand the stakeholders' and team players' (architect, engineer, client, and consultant) different preferences based on their needs, experiences, and expectations of the project. In this paper, we first provide an overview about conventional decision-making method and process, identify the existing attributes that contribute to decision making in design, and outline the obstacles present in making optimized sustainable design decisions due to the uncertainty of different stakeholders' preferences. Then, we present one case study to identify and compare different preferences among engineering students, practicing architects, and the general public, and we analyze how the three groups attribute different weight to the major design attributes. This paper provides some novel insights into a value-driven sustainable design process, and it will be one of the building blocks for creating a framework to integrate game theory into the design decision-making process, considering multiple stakeholders' perspectives and preferences for building attributes as future research tasks.
Virtual Instruments for Urban Design Decision-Making Process
