Design technology

Engineering

Ecology

Urban planning

Biology

Participatory design

Sustainability

Smart city

Embedded system

Systems engineering

Work in process

Parallels

Civil engineering

Computer science

Design science

Management science

Engineering design process

Mechanical engineering

Generative Design

Internet of Things

Political science

Design process

Sustainable development

Operations management

Artificial intelligence

Urban design

Architectural engineering

Metric (unit)

Decision support system

Knowledge management

Sustainable design

Environment and Planning B Urban Analytics and City Science

Current planning and design decision support systems show limitations in the integration of design, science, and computation. Planning support systems with manual design and post-design evaluations impose major challenges in exploring huge design spaces. Generative design systems largely neglect the wicked nature of design problems and lack appropriate representation methods and simulation tools at the urban scale. To tackle those challenges, this research developed a Smart Design framework featuring urban design decision-making reinforced by artificial intelligence-aided design (AIAD). The Smart Design framework treats urban design as an emergent pattern formation processes with contextualized and dynamic objectives. The framework integrates design thinking, advanced artificial intelligence search techniques (e.g. genetic algorithms), urban scale performance simulations, and participation to better inform decision-making. Through four major stages, the framework combines the ideas of Science for Design and Design in Science. The significance and potential of the Smart Design framework are demonstrated in an urban design study of Gangnam superblocks in Seoul, South Korea. The study explores sustainable urban forms in the high-density, super-complex, and hyper-consumptive environment of Gangnam, which can also be found in many other Asian contexts. The case study illustrates how the framework identifies design solutions for sustainable city development in the process of participatory decision-making through the co-evolution of design problems and solutions.

Artificial intelligence-aided design: Smart Design for sustainable city development