Chunks, Lines and Strategies

The paper presents an approach to capture and exchange the arguments and rationale architects develop while designing. The approach was inspired by experiments conducted in the context of a larger research project on architectural redesign. Protocol analysis revealed that architects tend to use three mechanisms in constructing arguments for design solutions: chunks, lines of thought, and strategies. These three mechanisms were used to record ̳realworld‘ design processes in architectural practice, the results of which were evaluated by assessors with different backgrounds. The paper closes by comparing the approach to related work, and outlining challenges for the future.