Collective Intelligence in Design Crowdsourcing

Jonathan Dortheimer

doi:10.3390/math10040539

Abstract

This study investigates how collective intelligence emerges in crowdsourcing for architectural design. Previous studies have revealed that collective intelligence emerges from collaboration and can outperform individual intelligence. As design is a highly collaborative practice, collective intelligence plays a vital role in the design process. In this study, we compare the structure of two architectural design crowdsourcing systems using several methods. The results of the analysis suggest that design crowdsourcing systems can give rise to the following three types of collective intelligence: (1) discussive, which emerges from a conversation between designers and clients; (2) synthetic, which emerges from a parallel and sequential design development; and (3) evaluative, which is based on the wisdom of the crowd in evaluating and selecting designs. The article concludes with recommendations for collaborative design method.

Highlights

We focus on crowdsourcing in the domain of design—that of architectural design
The contributions that the present study makes to previous research are as follows: (1) we offer a new collective intelligence perspective on online architectural design processes; (2) we discuss evidence on a potential collective intelligence through the analysis and evaluation of collective outcomes; (3) we propose a new crowdsourcing design process that facilitates collective intelligence; and, (4) we argue that previous research of design methods can contribute to the formation of novel crowdsourcing methods
The present investigation is one of the first studies to explore the emergence of collective intelligence in crowdsourcing for architectural design