Galathea: A Case-Based Planning Tool for Knowledge Navigation in the Architectural Design Process

Abstract

We report on an on-going Ph.D. research aimed at the analysis of the nature of process knowledge in architectural design and the development of a conceptual model for a case-based navigation tool for its support. We describe architectural design from a process viewpoint and assume it as a form of intentional planning, leading from an initial state configuration toward a desired situation, by means of an incremental specification of goals, constraints and involved variables. We consider the very essence of design and of the specific professional skill characterising designers as the continual recursive transformation of the initial solution model, in order to map the desired state onto the enacted one and the capability to govern a number of continually changing variables in this direction. On the basis of this general concept of the design process, we describe the model of Galathea, a case-based planning tool, aimed at progressively representing the enlarging space of acquired knowledge, and at supporting the designer´s central role in the management of the design process.