A MOKA mitigation approach for computational design challenges

Computational Design (CD) has emerged as a key digital technology in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, enabling designers to automate tasks, explore complex design alternatives, and collaborate more effectively. Despite these advantages, the adoption of CD faces numerous challenges related to limited knowledge, planning, change management, code readability, and data management. This study investigates how these challenges can be mitigated through the Methodology of Knowledge-Based Engineering Applications (MOKA). Using previously identified CD challenges from Mikaelsson (2022), each challenge was categorized according to the six phases of MOKA—Identify, Justify, Capture, Formalize, Package, and Activate—to analyse where mitigation can occur. The results show that most challenges can be addressed within the first two phases, Identify and Justify. Furthermore, MOKA complements existing research by offering a structured, process-oriented framework to guide CD development and implementation. Although MOKA has its limitations, the study concludes that there are opportunities to enhance computational design practice in AEC if parts of MOKA is applied iteratively during building design. Further details on our mitigation approach are presented and discussed in this study.