An Integrated Software Environment for the Architectural Design Process

Many software systems are in common use in the field of architectural design. On the other hand, we consider a complete automation of architectural design as an unlikely proposition and undesirable for the architect. Therefore, the general objective is to support the designer during the whole process of architectural design in order to increase the efficiency and to improve the quality of the results. So far there are different tools providing such functionality. Nevertheless, there are no appropriate tools for many of the sub-processes. Furthermore, the current state of available design software is characterised by a lack of integration of different tools. In this paper we will provide a survey on a project dealing with the solution of both problems. First we will give a general description of the support that software can provide to architects during the design process. We conclude that many different tools are needed which have to be integrated in an open, modular, distributed, user friendly and efficient environment. We will explain the necessity of integration and cover integration technologies. Besides the aspect of integration we also deal with the development of tools which can operate in the integrated design environment. We suggest a strategy where the tool functions are specified on the basis of a transformation from hierarchical process descriptions of architectural design into a hierarchy of tool descriptions