Architectural design requires balancing creativity with practical constraints, yet many early-stage decisions are made intuitively with limited evaluation of their impacts. In the context of increasing demand for affordable housing, there is a need for design workflows that better integrate efficiency, constructibility, and material performance at the schematic design stage. This thesis investigates how data-informed computational design workflows can support more evidence based early decision making within timber prefabricated housing design. Using a Research by Design (RbD) methodology supported by data-informed evaluation, the study combines iterative prototyping with computational evaluation to compare prefabricated timber systems within a four-unit medium-density housing proposal. Two evaluative matrices were developed: one to assess prefabrication systems across material use, life cycle considerations, performance, and construction criteria, and another to evaluate how architectural design decisions influenced efficiency and spatial outcomes across multiple design iterations. Functioning as decision-making tools, the matrices enabled qualitative design intentions to be tested against quantitative performance criteria while avoiding over-determination of architectural exploration. The findings demonstrate that the iterative, computationally informed design workflow effectively integrates evaluation with architectural
intent. The analysis clarifi es how early design decisions influence efficiency and spatial quality while also highlighting the limitations of computational precision and the continuing need for architectural judgment. Overall, the research shows that data-informed workflows can enhance design decision-making without replacing intuition, supporting more transparent, evidence-based, and efficient design processes.
Regulatory constraints play a conclusive role in shaping housing design outcomes, yet their operational integration into early-stage workflows remains limited. This paper introduces D-CodeWeaver, an interactive computational design system that incorporates prioritized regulatory logic directly into parametric design environments to support early-stage decision-making in modular housing projects. Rather than pursuing comprehensive automated code compliance, D-CodeWeaver formalizes selected high-impact regulatory requirements as parametric design rules that operate alongside geometric modelling. The system enables designers to generate modular building blocks, allocate residential unit mixes, and receive continuous spatial and analytical feedback on regulatory implications as design configurations evolve. Developed in collaboration with industry partners, the system integrates modular massing logic and unit-distribution strategies within a unified design analytics interface. By evaluating both building-level and site-level conditions during design exploration, D-CodeWeaver supports rapid “what-if” reasoning without relying on external compliance-checking tools. This work contributes a human-centred approach to regulatory integration, demonstrating how regulatory knowledge can serve as a design-support mechanism that enhances early-stage, data-informed exploration while preserving the designer’s control.
Halil Erhan, Esmaeil Mottaghi, Elton Gjata et al.· AHFE International· 0 citations
Prototyping plays a central role in engineering design by supporting creativity, modeling, experimentation, and validation under conditions of uncertainty. However, existing prototyping approaches remain fragmented across disciplines, with limited integration between design activities, fidelity selection, and decision-making processes. This lack of coherence makes it difficult to systematically guide prototyping across different stages of the engineering design lifecycle. This paper proposes a generalized, context-sensitive prototyping framework developed through a structured and critical synthesis of engineering design literature. The framework integrates four iterative stages: creativity and concept generation, modeling and analysis, prototyping strategy and execution, and experimental validation. It further incorporates key dimensions influencing prototyping decisions, including fidelity levels, risk considerations, stakeholder involvement, and uncertainty management. The framework is derived through thematic analysis of peer-reviewed literature spanning foundational prototyping models and recent developments in digital engineering, rapid prototyping, and AI-supported design. Representative case examples are used to illustrate the applicability of the framework across different engineering contexts. The contribution of this work is a unified conceptual and process-oriented framework that clarifies relationships among prototyping activities and provides a structured perspective for understanding prototyping under uncertainty. This study also identifies limitations of current approaches and outlines directions for future research in adaptive and data-driven prototyping systems.
R. Landaeta, A. Zabihollah· Applied Sciences· 1 citation
Digital technologies play a dual role in sustainability transitions: they can enable more sustainable practices while simultaneously reinforcing unsustainable patterns of use. Although design is increasingly recognized as a critical lever for steering sustainability-oriented behavior, little is known about how users perceive and prioritize sustainability design cues when these compete with functional, performance-oriented, and hedonic cues. Thus, this study examines how digital design cues shape sustainability-oriented decision-making by analyzing participatory design data from 18 sustainability-focused workshops with secondary-school students. Drawing on an affordance-based analytical lens, we conducted an affordance-oriented qualitative content analysis of 109 digital product concepts and 374 peer evaluation statements using an iterative coding procedure to identify sustainability affordances and competing affordances and examine how they are prioritized during evaluative judgments of digital product concepts. The findings reveal distinct context-dependent shifts in affordance salience. While sustainability affordances were most prominent in prototype concepts, where they accounted for 58% of all sustainability-related codes, they declined to 32% in positive evaluations and 10% in negative evaluations. Conversely, functional and performance affordances gained prominence during evaluative judgments. These patterns indicate that affordance salience varies across contexts and help explain why sustainability considerations may become less salient in evaluative decision settings. Interpreting these patterns through the concept of affordance competition, the study shows how multiple perceived action possibilities simultaneously compete for attention. By applying an affordance-based perspective to digital sustainability, the study contributes to research on sustainability-oriented design by highlighting how competing affordances shape the visibility and evaluation of sustainability considerations across different contexts. The findings offer practical implications for designing digital artifacts that make sustainability affordances more visible, meaningful, and competitive in everyday decision contexts, particularly for future generations of users.
Olga Levina, Aleksandra Revina, Friederike Lindauer· Sustainability· 0 citations
This study introduces a pilot framework for evaluating two facade systems under circular design principles, integrating multi-criteria and time-based assessments. The framework assesses cost, environmental impact, and life cycle assessment (LCA) performance over a 30-year building lifecycle, including maintenance and material recovery potential. Facade A (aluminum panel) and Facade B (timber-based modular system) are compared using a simplified scoring approach. Results indicate that timber-based facades outperform aluminum in environmental and LCA metrics, while cost differences are minimal. The pilot framework demonstrates a practical tool for early-stage design decision-making, highlighting key trade-offs between economic and environmental objectives. This study is intended as a pilot and exploratory application rather than a comprehensive quantitative assessment. Findings suggest that simplified multi-criteria and time-based evaluations can support architects in implementing circular design principles in facade selection, providing a foundation for more comprehensive assessments in future research.
Gizem Nur Gültepe, E. Alakavuk· Digital international journa...· 0 citations
Designing products that feel simple and intuitive while remaining efficient to manufacture and meaningful across cultures remains a key challenge in contemporary product development. Although minimalist design has achieved commercial success, most methodologies fail to systematically connect aesthetic intentions with engineering, usability, and production realities. This study proposes a four-phase iterative framework—Framing, Translation, Materialisation, and Experience that integrates human-centred design, simplicity heuristics—including ‘SHE’ (Shrink, Hide, Embody) tactics, quantitative aesthetic measurement, Design for X methods, and cross-cultural considerations to operationalise minimalist principles such as formal reduction, seriality, and industrial materiality. An empirical case study applied the framework to three competing automotive interior concepts through image-based evaluation by 113 respondents. Results provided preliminary evidence that a balanced hybrid approach consistently outperformed both traditional button-heavy and extreme single-screen minimalist designs across measures of usability, sense of order, trust, and user recommendation. Findings confirm that effective minimalism does not merely remove elements but strategically redistributes complexity into interface logic, production systems, and material quality. The framework offers designers a structured yet flexible path to create manufacturable, user-validated, and culturally sensitive minimalist products.
Hamid Naghdbishi, Seyed Behbood Issa-zadeh, C. Garay-Rondero· Designs· 0 citations
Over the recent decades, standardization of residential floor plans in urban housing has prioritized construction efficiency and cost optimization at the expense of spatial personalization. This leads to a reduction of user satisfaction and limited responsiveness to diverse occupant needs. However, customization within floorplans to enhance spatial usability and user comfort results in façade inconsistencies, ad-hoc external solutions. The study investigates the connection between user-driven floorplan customization and standardized façade optimization by exploring established design philosophies, and principles, systematically comparing the architectural case studies, examining how the integrated planning strategies can translate the interior configurability without compromising the façade’s compositional coherence. Employing a qualitative analytical framework, the study identifies design strategies, discusses the regulatory constraints, and procedures that conciliate the interior flexibility with façade comprehensibility, and the findings presents a transferable design solutions applicable to contemporary mass-housing, contributing to the discourse on user-centric personalization in urban residential architecture.
Selva Priyadharshan, A. Madhumathi, H. Ahmadnia· Proceedings of the internati...· 0 citations