Designmap: Capturing Design Knowledge in Architectural Practice

Within the conceptual phase of design, architects (and designers in general) collect and look at design documents. These design documents are sources of knowledge and inspiration for designers. In order to support knowledge representation and information organization in an integrated manner during the conceptual design phase, an information model named Architectural Information Map (ArcIMap) has been developed. Four prototype applications of this model have been developed and tested; three in architectural education and one in architectural practice. This paper presents the ArcIMap model, its application in architectural practice, the evaluation of this application, and its final version. The paper is concluded with a discussion of the results and future work.