Making Rejected and Non-Selected Architectural Design Decisions Traceable: A Decision/Memory Model


Öz K., Öz M. H.

BUILDINGS, cilt.16, sa.12, ss.1-33, 2026 (Hakemli Dergi)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 16 Sayı: 12
  • Basım Tarihi: 2026
  • Doi Numarası: 10.3390/buildings16122332
  • Dergi Adı: BUILDINGS
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Business Source Ultimate (EBSCO), Materials Science & Engineering Collection (ProQuest), Technology Collection (ProQuest), ABI/INFORM, Public Affairs Index
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-33
  • İstanbul Gelişim Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

In BIM-enabled architectural projects, information systems preserve accepted decisions far more reliably than the rejected and non-selected alternatives that shaped them. Drawings, models, specifications and common data environments record what a project became, while the reasons that eliminated competing options are dispersed across meeting notes and revision logs or lost. This asymmetry weakens design coordination, change management and cross-project knowledge reuse. This article proposes a conceptually derived and analytically evaluated recording artefact for recovering these lost decision traces within the phase-transition band from spatial coordination to technical design. A two-gate evaluation logic separates codified screening from stakeholder-mediated review and decouples the procedural location of rejection from the category family that organises its reason. Three loss types are identified: pre-stakeholder invisible loss, trace/version loss and terminal loss. These are linked to six rejection-category families, four process redirection effects and differentiated memory destinations, with a constraint-bearing layer divided into avoidance and comparative branches. A fillable eight-field decision record template, formalised as a single recording-and-routing procedure, is specified for BIM, common data environment and design review workflows, supported by a query specification. The model is illustrated through a constructed hotel-floor decision node and offers a structured basis for retaining the knowledge carried by rejected, revised and valid but non-selected architectural decisions