Architectural Design Decisions Research Articles

A model-driven, metrics-based approach to assessing support for quality aspects in MLOps system architectures

In machine learning (ML) and machine learning operations (MLOps), automation serves as a fundamental pillar, streamlining the deployment of ML models and representing an architectural quality aspect. Support for automation is especially relevant when dealing with ML deployments characterised by the continuous delivery of ML models. Taking automation in MLOps systems as an example, we present novel metrics that offer reliable insights into support for this vital quality attribute, validated by ordinal regression analysis. Our method introduces novel, technology-agnostic metrics aligned with typical Architectural Design Decisions (ADDs) for automation in MLOps. Through systematic processes, we demonstrate the feasibility of our approach in evaluating automation-related ADDs and decision options. Our approach can itself be automated within continuous integration/continuous delivery pipelines. It can also be modified and extended to evaluate any relevant architectural quality aspects, thereby assisting in enhancing compliance with non-functional requirements and streamlining development, quality assurance and release cycles.

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Tools for Assisting Low-Carbon Architectural Design: Merging the Use of Machine Learning, Large Language Models, and Building Information Modeling for Life Cycle Assessment Tool Development

The construction sector is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions and a major consumer of non-renewable resources. Architectural design decisions play a critical role in a building’s carbon footprint, making it essential to incorporate environmental analyses at various design stages. Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and building information modeling (BIM) can support designers in achieving low-carbon architectural design. The proposed solution involves the development of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool. This study presents a novel approach to optimizing the environmental impact of architectural projects. It combines machine learning (ML), large language models (LLMs), and building information modeling (BIM) technologies. The first case studies present specific examples of tools developed for this purpose. The first case study details a machine learning-assisted tool used for estimating carbon footprints during the design phase and shows numerical carbon footprint optimization results. The second case study explores the use of LLMs, specifically ChatGPT, as virtual assistants to suggest optimizations in architectural design and shows tests on the suggestions made by the LLM. The third case study discusses integrating BIM in the form of an IFC file, carbon footprint analysis, and AI into a comprehensive 3D application, emphasizing the importance of AI in enhancing decision-making processes in architectural design.

A System for Orchestrating Multiple Procedurally Generated Content for Different Player Profiles

We propose a system able to orchestrate the procedural generation of three creative facets (levels, narrative, and rules), using quality-diversity algorithms to promote diversity while converging to the desired solutions and able to satisfy different player's profiles. We aim to facilitate the project's reproducibility and extension by presenting the system's architecture and high-level design decisions and showcasing how we decoupled it enough to change algorithms. Our generation starts with a grammar-based quest generator that works as a frame for two quality-diversity algorithms: a level generator, which also creates locked-door puzzles, and an enemy generator, which selects their visuals based on their weapons. A rule-based profile analysis uses a pre-test questionnaire to classify the player into four profiles, and the quest generator creates different content for each of them. We use a game prototype to test our system with over 83 players, playing over 204 levels and answering a post-test questionnaire after each. Results show the game and contents were well-received, and there was a difference in perception between profiles. Players who played content based on their profile enjoyed it more than those playing content from another profile.

Impact of indoor environmental quality weighting schemes on office architectural design decisions

The importance of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) cannot be overstated, as it impacts the health and satisfaction of occupants. To evaluate overall indoor comfort, all four IEQ domains must be considered together. However, there is a lack of guidance on how to prioritize each domain and corresponding metrics, particularly during the early design stage. Therefore, this study investigates the effect of different weighting schemes on commercial building design elements to have high overall comfort. First, a parametric modeling approach for a shoe-box office building is developed to quantify IEQ domains using various design parameters. Subsequently, multiple weighting options are defined, resulting in an aggregated IEQ score. Next, high-performance designs are identified and compared based on each weighting scheme for two different climates. Results show that, as long as all four comfort domains are considered, the choice of weighting scheme does not significantly affect the selection of high-performance designs. Therefore, an equal weighting scheme is suggested for the early stage. This paper presents an original approach to support design decisions and the mutual weightings of IEQ factors.

Traceability of Architectural Design Decisions and Software Artifacts: A Systematic Mapping Study

Abstract The definition of architecture is a crucial task in software development, where the architect is responsible for making the right decisions to meet specific functional and quality requirements. These architectural design decisions form the foundation that shapes the arrangement of elements within a system. Unfortunately, these decisions are often poorly documented, implicit in various artifacts, or inadequately updated, leading to negative consequences on the maintainability of a system and resulting in rework and cost overruns. The objective of this systematic mapping study is to comprehend the current state regarding approaches for traceability of architectural design decisions and how these decisions are linked with the different artifacts used in software development. To achieve this, an information extraction protocol is followed, utilizing databases with search strings, inclusion, and exclusion criteria. The findings demonstrate that this knowledge is highly relevant; however, it is rarely explicitly documented. As a result, most works propose diverse approaches to extract this knowledge from existing technical documentation, commonly used tools, and other sources of product and process information. In contrast, it is evident that there is no standard for documenting design decisions, leading each author to present a subjective version of what is important and where to trace these decisions. This suggests that there is still a significant amount of research to be conducted regarding the traceability of these architectural design decisions and their connection with software artifacts. Such research could lead to intriguing new proposals for investigation.

Architecting ML-enabled systems: Challenges, best practices, and design decisions

Context:Machine learning is increasingly used in a wide set of applications ranging from recommendation engines to autonomous systems through business intelligence and smart assistants. Designing and developing machine learning systems is a complex process that can be eased by leveraging effective design decisions tackling the most important challenges and by having a good system and software architecture. Goal:The research goal of this work is to identify common challenges, best design practices, and main software architecture design decisions of machine learning enabled systems from the point of view of researchers and practitioners. Method:We performed a mixed method including a systematic literature review and expert interviews. We started with a systematic literature review. From an initial set of 3038 studies, we selected 41 primary studies, which we analysed according to a data extraction, analysis, and synthesis process. In addition, we conducted 12 expert interviews that involved researchers and professionals with machine learning expertise from 9 different countries. Findings:We identify 35 design challenges, 42 best practices and 27 design decisions when architecting machine learning systems. By eliciting main design challenges, we contribute to best practices and design decisions. In addition, we identify correlations among design challenges, decisions and best practices. Conclusions:We believe that practitioners and researchers can benefit from this first and comprehensive analysis of current software architecture design challenges, best practices, and design decisions.

Enhancing Semantic Segmentation: Design and Analysis of Improved U-Net Based Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

In this research, we provide a state-of-the-art method for semantic segmentation that makes use of a modified version of the U-Net architecture, which is itself based on deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs). This research delves into the ins and outs of this cutting-edge approach to semantic segmentation in an effort to boost its precision and productivity. To perform semantic segmentation, a crucial operation in computer vision, each pixel in an image must be assigned to one of many predefined item classes. The proposed Improved U-Net architecture makes use of deep CNNs to efficiently capture complex spatial characteristics while preserving associated context. The study illustrates the efficacy of the Improved U-Net in a variety of real-world circumstances through thorough experimentation and assessment. Intricate feature extraction, down-sampling, and up-sampling are all part of the network's design in order to produce high-quality segmentation results. The study demonstrates comparative evaluations against classic U-Net and other state-of-the-art models and emphasizes the significance of hyperparameter fine-tuning. The suggested architecture shows excellent performance in terms of accuracy and generalization, demonstrating its promise for a variety of applications. Finally, the problem of semantic segmentation is addressed in a novel way. The experimental findings validate the relevance of the architecture's design decisions and demonstrate its potential to boost computer vision by enhancing segmentation precision and efficiency.

Generative design experiments with artificial intelligence: reinterpretation of shape grammar

Purpose“Can artificial intelligence produce architectural plan schemes?” discussion is the starting point of this study. The aim of this paper is to question whether this will be a new method in architectural design by producing plans with artificial intelligence interfaces working with human–computer interaction and to create a discussion environment.Design/methodology/approachThe main research topic is the evaluation of architectural design decisions with the text-to-image generation AI algorithms method based on shape grammar rules. First, a sample space consisting of Palladio plans or plan diagrams was created. Plan diagram production experiments were made with different interfaces (Midjourney, Dall-e2, Stable Diffusion, Craiyon, Nightcafe), and alternative plan diagrams were recorded as outputs. The discussion of the outputs has been made over architectural design and space.FindingsIn the conceptual design phase of the architectural discipline and in the production of architectural plan scheme, AI algorithms are trending. This interaction imposes a new responsibility on architects. AI can create paradigm shifts in architectural processes with its tools with high data processing potential. On the other hand, in this study, it is emphasized that architecture is not just an act of producing visuals, but a functional act of producing visuals.Originality/valueThe technology is effective in producing architectural plans and directing them to artificial intelligence algorithms. With this study, multi-alternative architectural plan productions were tried with text-to-image bots with fast results. In this direction, a new method proposal has been developed for the conceptual design phase in architecture.

Designing and Building Large-Scale Distributed Enterprise Applications for Commerce

Designing a large-scale enterprise application for e-commerce that can manage multiple millions of requests and manages multi-million dollars in revenue has lot of complexities. The critical part of developing and maintaining such systems needs a thoughtful design that can be scalable, reliable and flexible enough to handle changes as the product evolves over time. Many companies have developed their own architecture and systems for this use case; we propose a system that’s designed and developed a few years ago which can handle millions of requests per day, rigorously tested with time on production and served various use cases and scenarios. There are several components and services in this system that must work seamlessly, and decisions must be made while designing a system. In this paper, we discuss the overall architecture, components involved and important design decisions that affect their ease of use, flexibility, performance, scalability, reliability and fault-tolerance. We also discuss other approaches that can be used while making design decisions. We then illustrate how our decisions and systems satisfy the requirements that can be used for designing and developing these large-scale enterprise applications for commerce stack.

Holistic Approach to Ecological Design Parameters of Building and Landscape Design on Outdoor Thermal Comfort in Hot, Humid Climate

In this study, academic staff residential buildings were studied as part of a university campus located in a hot and humid climate zone in Türkiye. Within the scope of the study, the energy efficient architectural and landscape design decisions of the buildings built in 1976 were examined. The aim was to determine the energy performance of buildings built about 50 years ago and to quantify the effect of changing landscape conditions on thermal comfort. In this aim, the outdoor thermal comfort level was determined by creating microclimate simulations for the hottest day and time of the year. Microclimatic analyses were performed with ENVI-met software and thermal comfort was evaluated with two metrics, average PMV and ASHRAE scale. The energy performance of the buildings was determined using ecological design parameters. An approach to global environmental problems is the use of ecological design principles, including architectural and landscape design principles. It is important to consider both architectural design criteria and landscape design criteria when discussing ecological design in the built environment. Architectural and landscape design decisions for hot and humid climate regions together increased energy efficiency by 51.1% to 75.5%. It was found that although the plant design improves energy performance in buildings by that range value, it improved outdoor thermal comfort by 15% to 22%. As a result, the study evaluated climate-balanced plant design with building energy performance in order to improve outdoor thermal comfort.

Resilience and sustainability-informed probabilistic multi-criteria decision-making framework for design solutions selection

In this paper, a novel probabilistic multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework for sustainable and resilient building design solutions selection is developed to optimize alternatives or rehabilitation strategies in a life cycle context. The proposed framework holistically takes into account the buildings' resilience metrics, environmental sustainability, and energy consumption. The life cycle economic cost, global warming potential (GWP), primary energy use (PEU), and social impact are used to represent the buildings’ resilience and sustainability. The second-generation Performance-based Earthquake Engineering procedure and FEMA P-58 method for time-based seismic performance analyses are used to evaluate earthquake-induced impact. The whole-building energy modeling (BEM) is adopted to assess energy use during the operational phase. In addition, life cycle analysis (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) are carried out to assess the life cycle performance of different design alternatives regarding environmental impacts and cost, respectively. Aiming to consider the various uncertainties in the decision-making process, a novel MCS-MCDM method is developed by combining the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) with the traditional MCDM method. The proposed framework is applied to analyze hypothetical cases considering different geographic locations, structural systems, and building envelope systems, and recommendations are given according to the analysis results. The case study demonstrates the advantages of the proposed framework over traditional frameworks and its guidance for architectural design decisions.

Evaluating Approaches to Find Architectural Design Decisions in Issue Tracking Systems

Evaluating Approaches to Find Architectural Design Decisions in Issue Tracking Systems

Craig Driver & Ross Warren (architects) will present examples of an innovative waymaking (wayfinding) concept from a current development in Norwich, UK

AbstractA new interpretation of the normalised “Wayfinding” design task offers the opportunity to become an important element of the larger clinical and architectural project for a new “core” expansion of a large regional psychiatric hospital in the South-East of the UK. We call this new approach Waymaking, as it goes beyond signage, leveraging our deep-set knowledge and understanding of the entire project at all scales.Waymaking at the Rivers Centre for Mental Health (Rivers) begins with the exploration of movement narratives into and around its larger site. It turns a classic design task into a design opportunity on all scales, starting with an urban design and planning perspective, through to the architectural and landscape design decisions outside of the building and into the specific on-ward atmospheres in a manner integrated with the detail interior design decisions of colour, built-in-furniture and others.Rivers has been carefully composed out of existing structures as well as smaller new-build and extension buildings. These are all set within a large, sloping site of noteworthy natural beauty. As such, Rivers can well be understood as a hillside village or campus of health - rather than as a traditional “hospital.” As a health village, Rivers provides spatial sequencing as the landscape design directly introduces a series of smaller, more human scale spaces built and natural all of which together aid in orientation and identity across the site. This will help support the daily use of the buildings by all stakeholders.This strategy has been “baked-in“ to the architectural design as well, strategically distributed retreat/recovery spaces allow for space for de-escalation or relaxation. These can be found in the form of regular niches in the hallways and “porch” entrance spaces, usually with built-in benches and bespoke lighting elements. In addition to creating orientation affordances, these also provide opportunities for neurodivergent persons (ie. ASD, learning disabilities, etc.) to better understand and master independent movement around the Centre.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Microservice Security Metrics for Secure Communication, Identity Management, and Observability

Microservice architectures are increasingly being used to develop application systems. Despite many guidelines and best practices being published, architecting microservice systems for security is challenging. Reasons are the size and complexity of microservice systems, their polyglot nature, and the demand for the continuous evolution of these systems. In this context, to manually validate that security architecture tactics are employed as intended throughout the system is a time-consuming and error-prone task. In this article, we present an approach to avoid such manual validation before each continuous evolution step in a microservice system, which we demonstrate using three widely used categories of security tactics: secure communication, identity management, and observability. Our approach is based on a review of existing security guidelines, the gray literature, and the scientific literature, from which we derived Architectural Design Decisions (ADDs) with the found security tactics as decision options. In our approach, we propose novel detectors to detect these decision options automatically and formally defined metrics to measure the conformance of a system to the different options of the ADDs. We apply the approach to a case study data set of 10 open source microservice systems, plus another 20 variants of these systems, for which we manually inspected the source code for security tactics. We demonstrate and assess the validity and appropriateness of our metrics by performing an assessment of their conformance to the ADDs in our systems’ dataset through statistical methods.

Conceptual Architectural Design at Scale: A Case Study of Community Participation Using Crowdsourcing

Architectural design decisions are primarily made through an interaction between an architect and a client during the conceptual design phase. However, in larger-scale public architecture projects, the client is frequently represented by a community that embraces numerous stakeholders. The scale, social diversity, and political layers of such collective clients make their interaction with architects challenging. A solution to address this challenge is using new information technologies that automate design interactions on an urban scale through crowdsourcing and artificial intelligence technologies. However, since such technologies have not yet been applied and tested in field conditions, it remains unknown how communities interact with such systems and whether useful concept designs can be produced in this way. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper reports the results of a case study architecture project where a novel crowdsourcing system was used to automate interactions with a community. The results of both quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed the effectiveness of our approach, which resulted in high-level stakeholder satisfaction and yielded conceptual designs that better reflect stakeholders’ preferences. Along with identifying opportunities for using advanced technologies to automate design interactions in the concept design phase, we also highlight the challenges of such technologies, thus warranting future research.

Simulations of non-image-forming effects of light in building design: A literature review

Light affects many aspects of human physiology, through the non-image-forming (NIF) pathway. To account for this pathway, lighting design simulation tools need to combine several luminous and temporal factors to predict how architectural and lighting design decisions affect eye-level light exposure. Based on a systematic literature review, containing 55 journal and conference papers, the state-of-the-art towards implementing lighting beyond vision in computer simulation workflows for building design is presented. The review shows that, while interest in simulating the NIF effects of light on people is increasing, there is not a common method to perform these simulations. Gaps were identified in the currently available simulation workflows in relation to metrics, software and approaches for predicting NIF effects of light in the context of the building design.

Developing a Design Framework to Methodize the Architecture Thesis Projects with Emphasis on Programming and Conceptualization Processes

The research develops a design framework as an applied tool to structure the necessary stages throughout architectural design programs, in particular thesis projects. The architecture thesis students apply programming and conceptualization in several different ways, and a significant proportion of them prefers to use precedents instead. Architecture thesis projects tend to focus mainly on the studies, methods, and analysis, however, the relationship between the programming-conceptualization and the rest of the thesis project seems to have attracted less attention. To cover this gap, a design framework was developed to link the architecture findings to the design objective and strategies. The research employed qualitative methods, including structured observation, and content and graphical analysis. The data were also derived from thesis students’ drawings offered in the final exam. The findings revealed the potential capacity of the design framework to connect the analytical outputs with the architectural design decisions through a specific concentration on the processes of programming and conceptualization. In conclusion, the design framework could enable architecture thesis students to create a range of alternatives with regard to programming and concepts, whereas these options are still well-connected to design decisions. This will undoubtedly help students and lecturers with the creation of a systematic process of inputs, activities, outputs, and possible impacts.

Safety of transportation buildings against vehicle bomb attacks with multi-criteria decision-making

PurposeThis study aims to focus on security measures for protecting transportation buildings from vehicle bomb attacks. It discusses ways to mitigate the effects of vehicle bomb terrorist attacks through architectural design decisions on transportation buildings.Design/methodology/approachThe main research topic is the evaluation of architectural design decisions for vehicle bomb attacks at transportation buildings with the multi-criteria decision-making method. First, it was investigated which characteristics the impact of the explosion on the structures depended on. The measures for vehicle bomb attacks regarding the relationship between the urban scale and the building were determined by four main criteria and 17 sub-criteria. Due to the complex and ambiguous nature of architectural design, these criteria were evaluated by the analytic hierarchy processes. After the criteria weights were obtained, the alternative sample buildings, including the train stations and airports, were evaluated with the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution method.FindingsThe site security design was determined as the most effective component for vehicle bomb attacks among the main criteria. The most important sub-criterion was the perimeter firewall. In the evaluations of the alternatives, it was determined that airports performed better against vehicle bomb attacks in terms of architectural design requirements than train stations.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the literature for the countries where explosions occur intensively by determining the importance of architectural design parameters for the transportation buildings and surroundings against vehicle bomb attacks. This study provides an evaluation model based on transportation buildings considering the relationship between the urban scale and the building itself.

Exploring Architectural Design Factors Affecting Building Maintainability and Strategies to Overcome Current Shortcomings

The design phase is when most critical decisions are made in terms of building maintainability. However, process-oriented empirical studies that identify problem factors and develop strategies remain lacking. Based on this gap in the literature, this research proposes a framework for enhancing architectural design decisions and practices through identifying and exploring problem factors affecting building maintainability. In addition, this research developed strategies to overcome the shortcomings of current practices in the Turkish building sector. Architectural design factors that influence building maintainability and relevant problems were evaluated through a web-based questionnaire survey conducted with facility managers. The findings indicate that improper selection of building materials and inadequate provisions for waterproofing, indoor ventilation, and service areas appear to be prominent areas of concern. Moreover, it was observed that the facility management profession has not gained a well-deserved place in the industry. The strategies proposed to overcome the shortcomings of current practices could be assumed to be supportive actions both for creating awareness in the industry and for making appropriate architectural design decisions about building maintainability.

Generation of Phenomenal Interior Quality from Refurbishment of Commercial Spaces in Residential Areas

Commercial buildings in the residential districts are under rapid redevelopment because retail shopping activities are being replaced by community service, education, eating and dinning and experiential activities in China. This paper revealed three interior refurbishment projects aiming to recreating interior public spaces. Interior fitting has rapidly grown in the building industry. Product suppliers provide strong support for construction quality and intervene in architectural design decisions. Interior design, as independent work, promotes effective dialogue with clients, users and suppliers in the design process. It is a platform for quality by understanding the texture, lighting and atmosphere as the key area of control in design. The interior design of three projects of Baumschlager Eberle Architekten (BEA) Hong Kong Ltd, transforms the common areas of shopping centres in residential areas into interior public spaces. The paper introduces and evaluates the design methods of BEA architects to present and control design quality, especially for interior public spaces. The territory, material, visibility, rhythms and use and overall interior atmosphere are analysed with case studies based on the literature review on outdoor public spaces. The paper concludes that interior refurbishment is an independent level of design in the recreating ―publicness‖ in existing building structure. Only when conceptually free from the constraints of structure and façade can unique atmospheres be achieved through design, opening up further intervention in future.