An innovative knowledge structure for supporting collaboration in building design.

The constant increase observed in the complexity of the building process is generally accompanied by a parallel general reduction in product quality, commonly ascribed to the inadequacy of the routine design methods and tools. In facts these ones, while on the one hand favour the in-depth treatment of individual disciplinary aspects performed by the many specialists involved in the design process, nevertheless make their overall integration more difficult and impose serious constraints on design creativity. The problem-solving capacity of the new ICT tools have so far raised fresh problems rather than solve the old ones, thus making the situation increasingly difficult. The paper illustrates an innovative model of design product/process that allows effective and creative collaboration among the actors involved by virtue of the interoperability established among the various semantic universes by enhancing the level, the quality and the exchange of the information while leaving unchanged the tools and operating modes to which the designers are accustomed.