ABSTRACT
Design is the work of a multi disciplinary design team that in the near future probably will be carried out in virtual design studios. We believe that the next generation of design systems should support the ability to communicate, collaborate and coordinate design decisions with clients, users, legislators, advisors, engineers and contractors, deal with conflicts, and negotiate a consensus. Agent based technology seems to offer a set of powerful concepts which can be of great help to model and build these new design systems. The DESSYS research will help us to get a better insight in the way design of foundations will change due to these developments in information-technology. Important goals are optimizing the design-process of foundations and integrating knowledge of the geotechnical engineer in the early design phase of the multidisciplinary design-process of buildings.
