A proposed conceptual framework for Computational Design Sustainability in Industrialized Building

Abstract

The construction industry has benefited from the recent methodological advancements in Computational Design (CD) and its associated technological developments. However, the multifaceted challenges faced by the construction industry have limited its capacity to achieve global sustainability goals. In this context, Industrialized Building (IB) has opened new avenues to take advantage of technology while promoting the incorporation of sustainability principles to mainstream construction problems. Despite its great potential, the literature in this area is fragmented, and the relationship between various aspects of these topics is not fully understood. This paper aims to bring awareness to the potential integration of IB and CD in promoting sustainability, thereby advancing the understanding of the topic by proposing this integration for future investigations and unravelling their relationships and underpinning ideas. The critical discussion presented in this paper proposes a common ground on which to build new knowledge in seeking to disclose conceptual patterns and links instead of specific causal mechanisms. We propose that this integration paves the way for creating a trade-off structure to manage these multifaceted and complex factors through "satisficing" – finding the satisfactory solutions rather than the optimized ones – the design, operation and delivery of a building project (and its construction value chain) in a more sustainable way.