EVALUATING INTERDEPENDENT ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTS: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH

This paper presents an application of the Analytic Network Process (ANP) to an architectural project selection problem. ANP is a method based on Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) that accurately models complex environments. This approach is particularly useful in problems that work with partially available data, qualitative variables, and influences among the variables, which are very common situations in the project evaluation context. It is difficult to select the best set of proposed architectural projects because many factors are involved, such as project risk, corporate goals, and limited availability of the firm's architectural resources. In this paper, we suggest an improved architectural project selection methodology, which reflects interdependencies among evaluation criteria and candidate projects using ANP within a zero-one goal programming (ZOGP) model. In order to provide a systematic approach to setting priorities among multiple criteria and trade-offs among objectives, we suggest that ANP is applied prior to goal programming (GP) formulation. As an illustration, we apply the new approach to a real case study of an architectural project selection problem located in Taichung, Taiwan, using an integrated approach including fuzzy Delphi, ANP, and ZOGP. The results confirm the validity of the methodology and show that the more information that is incorporated into the model, the more accurate the solution will be, so the presented methodology is a good alternative to current architectural project selection evaluation approaches.