Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Experimental Use of Strategic Choice Approach (SCA) by Individuals as an Architectural Design Tool

  • Published:
Group Decision and Negotiation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The paper proposes the use of the Strategic Choice Approach as a way of structuring the architectural design process, done by individuals and partly supported by meetings and interviews with DMs, experts, and stakeholders. The aim is to stimulate a debate around the use of SCA and its possible merging with architectural design, also analysing how the micro-processes involved in this merging can work in practice. We reflect on the possible use of SCA to determine prescriptive conditions on physical form at a scale that is still intermediate between the single building and the urban tissue: the method is employed as a design tool to provide alternative transformation scenarios. It represents a way of approaching the challenge of planning in an uncertain world, eliciting guidelines and strategies, and furthermore it produces an architectural project or transformation in a physical sense. Moreover, by investigating what occurs during the different micro-processes with the interviewees, we focus on some behavioural issues and effects, in relation to the context, the models of the application and the different entities involved in the interventions. This proposal shows an application to a real-world problem, currently under debate by the City of Turin (Italy), the re-use of abandoned barracks located in a prestigious residential area.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Source Reproduced with permission from Armando and Durbiano (2017)

Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

(Reproduced with permission from Armando et al. 2015)

Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ackerman F, Eden C (2005) Using causal mapping with group support systems to elicit an understanding of failure in complex projects: some implications for organizational research. Group Decis Negot 14:355–376

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ackermann F, Eden C (2011) Strategic management of stakeholders: theory and practice. Long Range Plan 44:179–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albrechts L, Balducci A (2013) Practicing strategic planning: in search of critical features to explain the strategic character of plan. Plan Rev 49(3):16–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Armando A, Durbiano G (2017) Teoria del progetto architettonico. Dai disegni agli effetti, Carocci, Roma

    Google Scholar 

  • Armando A, Bonino M, Frassoldati F (2015) Watersheds. A narrative of urban recycle. Sandu Publishing Co, Guangzhou

    Google Scholar 

  • Coelho D, Antunes CH, Martins AG (2010) Using SSM for structuring decision support in urban energy planning. Technol Econ Dev Econ 16:641–653

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eden C, Jones S, Sims D, Smithin T (1981) The intersubjectivity of issues and issues of intersubjectivity. J Manag Stud 18(1):37–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faludi A (2000) The performance of spatial planning. Plan Pract Res 15(4):299–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faludi A, van der Valk A (1994) Rule and order: Dutch planning doctrine in the twentieth century. Geo J Libr 28:105

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferraris M (2009) Documentalità. Perché è necessario lasciar tracce, Laterza, Roma-Bari

    Google Scholar 

  • Franco LA (2006) Forms of conversation and problem structuring methods: a conceptual development. J Oper Res Soc 57:813–821

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franco LA, Montibeller G (2010) Facilitated modelling in operational research. Eur J Oper Res 205:489–500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fregonara E, Curto R, Grosso M, Mellano P, Rolando D, Tulliani JM (2013) Environmental technology, materials science, architectural design, and real estate market evaluation: a multidisciplinary approach for energy-efficient buildings. J Urb Technol 20:57–80

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friend JK (1993) Planning in the presence of uncertainty: principles and practice. J Jpn Soc Civ Eng 476:1–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Friend J, Hickling A (1987) Planning under pressure: the strategic choice approach, 1st edn. Pergamon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Friend J, Hickling A (2005) Planning under pressure: the strategic choice approach, 3rd edn. Pergamon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Giangrande A, Mortola E (2005) Neighbourhood renewal in Rome. Combining strategic choice with other design methods. In: Friend J, Hickling A (eds) Planning under pressure: the strategic choice approach, 3rd edn. Pergamon, Oxford, pp 322–326

    Google Scholar 

  • Hämäläinen RP, Luoma J, Saarinen E (2013) On the importance of behavioural operational research: the case of understanding and communicating about dynamic systems. Eur J Oper Res 228(3):623–634

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latour B (1988) Science in action. How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour B (2013) Cogitamus. Sei lettere sull’umanesimo scientifico, Il Mulino, Bologna

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour B, Woolgar S (1979) Laboratory life: the construction of scientific facts. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA

  • Mastop H, Faludi A (1997) Evaluation of strategic plans: the performance principle. Environ Plan 24:815–832

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mingers J (2003) A classification of the philosophical assumptions of management science methods. J Oper Res Soc 54(6):559–570

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mingers J (2011) Soft OR comes of age—but not everywhere!. Omega. Int J Manag Sci 39:729–741

    Google Scholar 

  • Mingers J, Rosenhead J (2001) Diverse unity: Looking inward and outward. In: Rosenhead J, Mingers J (eds) Rational analysis for a problematic world revisited: problem structuring methods for complexity, uncertainty and conflict. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Mingers J, Rosenhead J (2004) Problem structuring methods in action. Eur J Oper Res 152:530–554

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Keefe R (2016) Experimental behavioural research in operational research: what we know and what we might come to know. Eur J Oper Res 249:899–907

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rittel HWJ, Webber MM (1973) Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sci 4:155–169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tavella E, Lami IM (2018) Negotiating perspectives and values through soft OR in the context of urban renewal. J Oper Res Soc. https://doi.org/10.1080/01605682.2018.1427433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White L (2006a) Evaluating problem structuring methods: developing an approach to show the value and effectiveness of PSMs. J Oper Res Soc 57:842–855

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White L (2006b) Aesthetics in OR/systems practice: towards a concept of critical imagination as a challenge to systems thinking. Syst Res Behav Sci 23(6):779–791

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White L (2016) Behavioural operational research: towards a framework for understanding behaviour in OR interventions. Eur J Oper Res 249:827–841

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yaneva A (2009) Laboratory life: the construction of scientific facts. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam

  • Yaneva A (2012) Mapping controversies in architecture. Ashgate, Farnham

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Architecture and Design Department, Politecnico di Torino, Viale Mattioli 39, 10125, Turin, Italy

    Elena Todella & Alessandro Armando

  2. Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, Politecnico di Torino, Viale Mattioli 39, 10125, Turin, Italy

    Isabella Maria Lami

Authors
  1. Elena Todella
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Isabella Maria Lami
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Alessandro Armando
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elena Todella.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Todella, E., Lami, I.M. & Armando, A. Experimental Use of Strategic Choice Approach (SCA) by Individuals as an Architectural Design Tool. Group Decis Negot 27, 811–826 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10726-018-9567-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10726-018-9567-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation