ABSTRACT
This chapter includes the examples of systems demonstrate how others have considered this question of decision support in the context of architecture. It suggests that these methods can be used either broadly, to ensure that buildings satisfy our ever-growing array of needs and wants, or more narrowly, to make sure we don't neglect the qualities of buildings, which are only a few of their many characteristics. The chapter describes a decision-making approach that was gently and fortuitously introduced to me at my very first presentation of my green roof. The calculation of value is performed in a three-step process. First, levels of a given environmental parameter are assigned "commensurate values" between 0 and; second, each parameter is weighted based on its relative importance; and the third and final step in the Battelle methodology is the summation of the weighted parameters to determine the Environmental Index (EI) of the project outcome.
