Scaffolded Participatory Design for Modular Construction: Feedback-Driven Interaction in Fabrication-Aware Design Environments

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Bük M. E., Pekeriçli M. K.

44th eCAADe Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe), Lübeck, Almanya, 7 - 11 Eylül 2026, cilt.2, ss.177-186, (Tam Metin Bildiri)

Özet

Even though modular construction offers significant efficiency and sustainability benefits, its adoption is often limited to expert-driven and rigid design workflows, which prevents meaningful participation and adaptability. Within the context of increasing automation and digitized fabrication, this study investigates how participatory design environments and tools can support informed decision-making in modular construction while maintaining technical, production, and lifecycle constraints. This study presents a gamified digital platform that integrates parametric design principles with real-time feedback related to spatial configuration, structural feasibility, cost estimation, and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) principles to support the participatory modular design process. The platform embeds fabrication constraints as observable parameters within the design process, allowing users to explore their effects on modular configurations through direct interaction. A central contribution of the study is the design of this platform together with an evaluation protocol built to examine how different feedback and scaffolding mechanisms shape design cognition and decision-making. This setup defines the experimental conditions for a planned study of how non-expert users and designers interpret constraints, respond to system feedback, and negotiate design trade-offs. We argue that gamified and feedback-driven platforms can function as cognitive and epistemic mediators between design intent, fabrication logic, and lifecycle considerations.