This special issue focuses on the rich diversity of methods for analyzing, modeling, and supporting collective design activity in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) domains. The editorial begins by outlining the unique characteristics of architectural and construction design: it is not only an intuitive creative act but also a rational, communicable, and context-sensitive process. Designers navigate multiple formal, functional, environmental, technical, and economic constraints while crafting original artifacts that transcend mere replication of existing models. Design in AEC is inherently complex, collective, and continuous. It engages a multitude of dimensions, including cognitive, semiotic, social, and technological, and develops through iterative dialogues with the material and symbolic context, combining expert roles and stakeholder participation in cooperative and collaborative modes. Far from being confined to preliminary phases, design stretches across the entire building lifecycle, from schematic design to construction and maintenance, reinforced by integrated approaches such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) and design-build strategies that blur the boundaries between conception and realization.
The editorial presents a critical overview of methodological approaches deployed to study this multifaceted activity. Retrospective methods such as explicitation interviews, autoconfrontation, and document analysis provide insights into practitioners’ decision-making, tacit knowledge, and experiential reasoning, while acknowledging limitations such as memory bias and rationalization. Concomitant methods, including in-situ observation, participant observation, and think-aloud protocols, illuminate real-time interactions, adjustments, and cognitive processes in context. Prospective and experimental methods extend the horizon toward anticipated futures. Modeling and simulation, prospective ergonomics, and co-design workshops enable stakeholders to explore and anticipate novel scenarios, though they face validation and implementation challenges. Laboratory protocols, such as design problem tasks, Function-Behaviour-Structure (FBS) coding, or novice-expert comparisons, strike a balance between controlled analysis and ecological validity. Instrumentation through sensors and analytics, including eye-tracking, motion capture, or BIM activity logs, enriches the empirical landscape with quantitative and behavioural insights, although this raises technical, interpretative, and ethical concerns.
This issue’s contributions exemplify these methodological pluralities. They highlight verbal and informational interactions (Rahhal, Ben Rajeb, and Leclercq; Baudoux), foreground the corporeality and sensorimotor dimensions of design (Claeys, Cleven, and Roobaert), and explore participatory dynamics involving users (Loiseau and Safin). Collectively, they affirm that no single method suffices to capture the layered nature of design activity. Instead, deeper understanding emerges through the orchestration of theoretical frameworks and empirical strategies.
Looking ahead, the present editorial and the contributions assembled here reaffirm that architectural and construction design is deeply technical, symbolic, and collaborative, and that its fuller comprehension fosters practices that are more effective, inclusive, and responsive to those who imagine, build, and inhabit our environments.
