Architecture Engineers Award

Architectural design processes involve complex interactions among multiple stakeholders, including architects, planners, engineers, and institutional decision-makers. Within these processes, design documents function not only as technical representations but also as visual artefacts that shape communication and negotiation. This study examines how specific architectural design artefacts influence decision-making, particularly during moments of conflict where different perspectives must be reconciled. By analyzing how these artefacts operate within collaborative planning environments, the research highlights their role in structuring and guiding design decisions. Design Artefacts as Mediators in Architectural Practice In architectural workflows, drawings, diagrams, models, and digital visualizations serve as mediating objects that facilitate communication among diverse actors. These artefacts translate complex design ideas into tangible representations that can be interpreted and debat...

  Early-stage architectural design is highly dependent on precedent cases and accumulated domain knowledge, which help designers explore concepts, establish design logic, and reduce uncertainty. However, existing digital assistance tools struggle to effectively support this phase due to the dominance of visual information and the linguistic diversity found in architectural descriptions. This study addresses these challenges by proposing a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) framework specifically tailored to architectural design contexts. Challenges in Precedent-Based Architectural Assistance Architectural precedents are complex, multimodal, and context-sensitive, combining drawings, images, diagrams, and textual narratives. Traditional retrieval systems often fail to capture the underlying design logic or to align visual data with semantic descriptions. These limitations reduce retrieval accuracy and restrict the usefulness of precedent recommendations during conceptual desig...

In response to accelerating global challenges such as resource depletion, climate risk, and urban health inequality, architectural design is undergoing a fundamental shift from experience-based approaches to intelligence-driven practices. Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Architectural Design (AI4SAD) has emerged as a critical catalyst in this transformation. This study provides the first comprehensive mapping of AI4SAD research, examining how AI is being applied across architectural design stages, sustainability objectives, and algorithmic domains. Scope and Methodology of the Systematic Review The research is grounded in a systematic review of 408 scholarly studies, offering a robust spatiotemporal overview of global AI4SAD development. By analyzing patterns across regions, time periods, design phases, and sustainability targets, the study establishes a structured evidence base that reveals dominant research trajectories as well as underexplored areas within AI-driven sustai...

Architectural design is not only a creative activity but also a decision-making process shaped by interactions among diverse actors, tools, and representations. This study investigates how specific design documents, understood as visual artefacts, actively influence decision-making by mediating perspectives and resolving conflicts at critical moments. By focusing on the performative role of artefacts, the research addresses a gap in architectural design studies that has traditionally emphasized practices without sufficiently examining the agency of individual artefacts within those practices. Paradigm Shifts in Architectural Design Research The paper situates itself within broader paradigm shifts in architectural and engineering research, particularly those influenced by sociological and anthropological studies of professional practice. While previous research has examined how architects and planners work and how design practices unfold over time, it has rarely connected the specifi...

  This study investigates how architecture students translate abstract design concepts into tangible spatial forms within the context of studio-based education. Recognizing architectural design as a cognitively complex and iterative process, the research positions representation as a central mechanism through which ideas are explored, tested, and refined. By examining both qualitative and quantitative evidence from a structured design studio, the study addresses a critical gap in understanding how conceptual thinking evolves into spatial outcomes through representational practices. Pedagogical Framework and Design Studio Structure The research is grounded in a nine-week architectural design studio organized into five sequential phases: site analysis, concept development, mass study, architectural drawing, and spatial form. This structured framework provides a controlled pedagogical environment for observing how students progress from analytical understanding to spatial resolutio...