Philosophy and Structure of a CWE-based Model of Building Design.

Building industry involves a far greater number of professional profiles than all other industries, and it wastes about half of world energy consumption: these two figures are already indicative of the economical importance of this sector beyond all the technical and environmental implications. Anyhow, while the complexity of the building process and of its products is ever increasing, the quality of the buildings is often inadequate, as not complying with the required performances, budget and timing . These difficulties, generally all the greater the more ‘creative’ the design, are often aggravated by misunderstandings, lack of data, and the different aims pursued by the various actors, owing to the close links that exist between actors, activities and resources. To overcome these difficulties we propose a CWE-based process/product model (and an underlying formalization of the information exchanged) of an ICT system through which numerous actors exchange knowledge and interact in carrying out consistent solutions of a design project.