UBICOMP-KAIZEN: The use of Japanese Quality Management methods for the Design of Smart Buildings

This paper describes the successful development of a design supporting method called ‘Ubicomp-Kaizen’ for the design of computer-integrated ‘smart’ buildings. The tool uses known methods of quality-management of the car-manufacturing industry and integrates them into the architectural design process. By this, the CAAD-topics ‘design methodology’, ‘ubicomp/smart buildings’, ‘interactive architecture’ and ‘Building Information Model (BIM)’ are involved. In result it proves the successful integration and application of tools known from the product development industry such as ‘Quality-Function-Deployment (QFD)’ and ‘Failure Mode and Effects Analyze (FMEA)’ within the iterative building design. The outlook formulates a side-result which is the setup of a digital decision supporting tool and the extension of the IFC-definitions in order to integrate aspects of user-interaction and ubicomp.