Integrated design is a comprehensive holistic approach to

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

which brings together specialisms usually considered separately. It attempts to take into consideration all the factors and modulations necessary to a decision making process. A few examples are the following: *Design of a building which considers whole building design including

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

structural engineering Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and muscles' that create the form and shape of man-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and cal ...

passive solar building design In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unli ...

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/ref> and HVAC. The approach may also integrate

building lifecycle management Building lifecycle management or BLM is the adaptation of product lifecycle management (PLM)-like techniques to the design, construction, and management of buildings. Building lifecycle management requires accurate and extensive building informati ...

and a greater consideration of the end users of the building. The aim of integrated building design is often to produce sustainable architecture. *Design of both a product (or family of products) and the assembly system that will produce it. *Design of an electronic product that considers both hardware and software aspects, although this is often called co-design (not to be confused with participatory design, which is also often called co-design). The requirement for integrated design comes when the different specialisms are dependent on each other or "coupled". An alternative or complementary approach to integrated design is to consciously reduce the dependencies. In computing and systems design, this approach is known as

loose coupling In computing and systems design, a loosely coupled system is one # in which components are weakly associated (have breakable relationships) with each other, and thus changes in one component least affect existence or performance of another comp ...

Dis-integrated design

Three phenomena are associated with a lack of integrated design: *Silent design: design by default, by omission or by people not aware that they are participating in design activity. *Partial design: design is only used to a limited degree, such as in superficial styling, often after the important design decisions have been made. *Disparate design: design activity may be widespread, but is not co-ordinated or brought together to realise its potential. The resulting design may have needless complexity, internal inconsistency, logical flaws and a lack of a unifying vision. A committee is sometimes a deliberate attempt to address disparate design, but the phrase " design by committee" is associated with this failing, leading to disparate design. "Design by committee" can also lead to a kind of silent design, as design decisions are not properly considered, for fear of upsetting a hard-won compromise.

Methods for integrated design

The integrated design approach incorporates collaborative methods and tools to encourage and enable the specialists in the different areas to work together to produce an integrated design. A

charrette A charrette (American pronunciation: ), often Anglicized to charette or charet and sometimes called a design charrette, is an intense period of design or planning activity. The word ''charrette'' may refer to any collaborative process by which ...

provides opportunity for all specialists to collaborate and align early in the design process.

Human-Centered Design Human-centered design (HCD, also human-centred design, as used in ISO standards) is an approach to problem-solving commonly used in process, product, service and system design, management, and engineering frameworks that develops solutions to ...

provides an integrated approach to problem solving, commonly used in design and management frameworks that develops solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process.

Dis-integrated design

Methods for integrated design

References

See also