Computerized DSS for evaluating design performance of residential buildings using additive weighting approach

ABSTRACT

Early architectural decisions have an enormous impact on the long-term performance of buildings. Evaluating architectural designs remains a subjective and biased process that varies from one person to another. Based on three questionnaires with 37 expert architects, seven Architectural Design Variables (ADVs) were identified, with a total of 40 design options that suit residential buildings. The experts defined the degree by which each ADV decision positively or negatively affect multiple life-cycle performance criteria: space functionality; construction time and cost; operational performance; and aesthetics. Based on that, this paper presents a novel Architectural Design Decision Support System (AD-DSS) to automatically evaluate and rank any combination of early design, using the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) method. The AD-DSS can automatically evaluate any combination of architectural design in terms of overall performance or a specific aspect without subjective inputs. Besides, a simple-user program developed to facilitate multiple system functions. A case study of a residential building with five different design alternatives demonstrated the powerful ability of the AD-DSS to provide early decision advice in a systematic and informed way to project stakeholders.

KEYWORDS:

• Building design
• architectural variables
• design quality
• life-cycle performance
• residential buildings
• multi-criteria decision analysis
• decision support system
• computer program

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.