eLearning for knowledge management in collaborative architectural design

Energy and environment concerns and budget cuts are determining an increasing complexity of re-quirements, constraints, and regulations in the field of Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC), as well as in other domains, such as aeronautics, automotive, and more. As a consequence, the amount of information required to take decisions and for a reciprocal understanding among ac-tors increases accordingly. If the resulting problem of knowledge management is not managed prop-erly, either the design cost grows or a portion of the required knowledge is not taken into account, and the quality of the resulting solution decreases. In order to avoid mutual misconceptions and in-comprehension, the actors participating in a collaborative design activity playinterchangeable roles of teacher (explaining own methods and necessities)and learner (importing the teaching-colleague’s knowledge into her individual settings). In thispaper we propose to adopt eLearning methodologies and technologies in order to support knowledge management in collaborative architectural design. Enhancing collaborative design with eLearning would help to break the “symmetry of ignorance”, to make the mutual awareness experience more supported and the result of the collaborative work more reusable.