Collective Intelligence: A Human-Centric Approach Toward Scientific Design

Formalization of knowledge within a scientific paradigm unifies sporadic efforts through converging glossary and notation, thus enabling scientists to identify knowledge gaps and discrepancies easier. Formalization reveals potential bridges to various domain sciences and facilitates the utilization of methods that have proven effective in scientific problem-solving. In the case of Architecture and Built Environment, there is a long history of scattered efforts for identifying and formalizing design problems and design methodologies, but the big picture is yet missing. In this short piece, we name and frame some of these efforts to identify their parallels with Mathematics, Computer Science, and Systems Theory, as well as to illustrate new opportunities that methodical design unlocks.