Architectural design decision support system

UnrestrictedThis thesis paper is about addressing the complexities of the architectural design decision making processes, more specifically complexities introduced by new and emerging technologies. Currently, it seems as if the entire architectural profession is locked in a state of paradox with today's scientific and technological developments. At its core, the cause of this paradox is the sheer quantity of information sources being available, the rate at which they are being developed and of course the instant access to the information itself regardless to where it is stored on the planet. While at first glance it might seem that this ever‐growing surge of information and its limitless availability is a great asset to any decision making process, by itself it is in fact, after crossing a certain threshold in quantity, completely ineffective. It is most counter intuitive phenomenon where too much information makes the information itself ineffective as far as influencing a decision making process within a professional arena; unless there is a system that is dynamic enough to effectively structure and integrate levels of complexities within the design processes as they are introduced when a new layer of information becomes either available or required by a project.; At this point it is also important to point out that the topic of this paper is architectural design decision making processes, the emphasis being on the design. I put the emphasis on the word design because design problems by nature can't be complete in their definition, essentially a design problem itself has no definite boundaries and therefore it can't have a one correct solution. It is because of this fact that design problems could have sets of possible solutions and the fact that ultimately only one can be selected at the end is why they are called design problems. To this end, a designer therefore is required to formulate a final design solution through some creative processes. If the designer is to make a choice that is the most effective solution from a possible set of solutions for a particular problem, then it is obvious that one would need as complete range and developed sets of possible solutions as possible to weigh them against each other. To do this as efficiently and objectively as possible one would need as much information as it is possible to have access to, and it is at this juncture that without an effective system that can process the amount and various types of information, an information overflow will make the information itself completely ineffective in its role to support the design decision making process. So we create this paradox by reaching out to as much data as possible, as it is in our nature, without having real practical means to deal with it. Data based Architectural Design Decision Making Support System is absolutely critical if we are to break from this paradox