A Multi-Criteria Framework for Sustainable Structural Design Tools in Early-Stage Design

Abstract

The construction industry’s digital maturity remains critically low in early-stage structural design, the phase where decisions most significantly dictate a building's total lifecycle impact. While a plethora of digital tools claim to facilitate sustainability, practitioners lack a systematic, evidence-based framework for tool selection, often leading to sub-optimal workflows and a "tool-choice paradox." This study addresses this gap by presenting a qualitative evaluation of three prominent tools representing distinct digital paradigms: Carbon Designer 3D (cloud-based schematic estimation), Structural PANDA (generative optimization), and Carbo-Life Calculator (BIM-integrated evaluation). Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), these tools are assessed against three core pillars: efficiency, decision support, and user experience, decomposed into 11 specific functional criteria. To ground the model, performance scoring was derived from a real-world office building case study. Our findings reveal a critical trade-off between automation and accessibility: Structural PANDA demonstrates superior generative design integration but requires high computational literacy, whereas Carbon Designer 3D excels in rapid estimation but lacks geometric flexibility. Meanwhile, Carbo-Life Calculator provides robust BIM integration for carbon tracking but fails to offer the comparative trade-off capabilities essential for iterative design. By isolating these qualitative performance drivers, this article contributes a streamlined selection matrix and a decision-support framework. This enables engineering firms and researchers to align tool selection with specific project requirements and institutional technical capacity, ultimately fostering a more effective transition toward low-carbon structural design.