A Study Of Process Optimization Of Architectural Design Based On Information Dependency

As the result of the booming economics in China, in recent times there has been a growing demanding for the more intelligent and more complex architecture. Meanwhile the clients of the projects usually require the design with high quality being delivered in a tighter schedule. The main challenge of a complex project lies in the complexity of the design management rather than complexity of the techniques. As the integration of multi-disciplinary teamwork, architectural design means the close cooperation of many individuals and teams. Due to the inter-dependency of the information of different design tasks, a considerable amount of exchange of information is generated during the design process.A reasonable design process based on the inter-dependency of the information is essential to remarkably enhance the efficiency and quality of the architectural design by reducing the time input and avoiding the reiteration or remaking of tasks.Currently most of the related research and study are focusing on the theoretical analysis. In design practices, the levels of dependency of task units have to be estimated for every individual project. Therefore the aim of this thesis is to find the practical and systematic method oriented on the parameters of the specific project to strengthen the efficiency of design management.Based on the case study of a high rise office building complex, this thesis presents a detailed model of the process of the production of construction document for public buildings.Firstly, the design process is classified in six major technical categories with 290 basic task units by using the technique called IDEF0 v, followed by the thorough analysis of the 1751 design information flows. Furthermore, the analysis of the datum graded by design experts in every technical category leads to the semi-quantitative description of how much the design task is influenced by the related information and the accuracy of the estimation on how much information needed.The study adopts the conventional method of the estimation of maximum values to evaluate the dependency structure matrix( DSM). The matrix will combine with the design process optimized by the technique of ADe PT.Lastly, having comparing the conventional design process and the optimized one, the thesis makes the analysis on optimizing methods and its key nodes. The theory of cognitive psychology is applied to avoid the reiteration or remaking to reasonably shorten the design process. The built office project testifies that systematic adjustment of the sequence and contents of the task units can effectively reduce the queuing time for the necessary information and unnecessary design modifications.The major contribution of this study is the accumulation of the experiences in practice.From the perspective of the artificially controlled environmental factors and the pattern of information dependency, the thesis makes a valuable reference for the practice of design management.