The Integrated Design Process (IDP): a more holistic approach to sustainable architecture

Summary: This paper presents the Integrated Design Process (IDP) applied to sustainable architecture and available design methods and gives an example of the tools applied. The paper focuses upon the ability to integrate knowledge from engineering and architecture and let them interact with each other in order to solve the often very complicated problems connected to the design of sustainable buildings. Some of the aspects of the integrated design process were tested on a virtual design project in order to evaluate if the IDP can help achieve sustainable architecture. The aim was to show how different tools related to the IDP can interact in order to enable sustainability to become a natural part of any building project. The virtual design project gives an example of how a selection of parameters can be weighted and used in a sketching project. The paper thereby discusses an example of how the different parameters and products can interact, and which consequences this would have on a project. The IDP does not ensure aesthetic or sustainable solutions, but it enables the designer to control the many parameters that must be considered and integrated in the project when creating more holistic sustainable architecture in order to achieve better sustainable solutions, because all the different parameters are considered during the process.