Abstract
Initial assessment of cost estimation for constructing a building is one of the most challenging and critical tasks by all involved participants across the fields of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (A/E/C) industries. This may be contributed by the architects' subjectivity, owners' requirements, and a variety of possible design alternatives. Early decisions based on an estimate involve highly uncertain subsequent disputes between stakeholders. One of the most common uncertainty cost estimate factors of a project is selecting the building Architectural Design Variables (ADVs). Thus, this research identified seven ADVs with 40 design options that have conflicting contributions to the cost performance in construction. These options were quantitatively evaluated and combined to generate the cost of potential designs. Based on that, a novel Architectural-Based Construction Cost Impact Scoring System (ACCISS) was developed to reduce stakeholders' subjectivity, and accordingly, determine the most appropriate design decision that provides early cost advice and highlights the most cost-acceptable design alternatives. The proposed ACCISS is capable to automatically evaluate any combination of design alternatives, through its simple and user-friendly program. A case study of three design alternatives with three regression analyses models was incorporating to validate the ACCISS. The models' results showed the ability of ACCISS to work as an efficient assessing tool for providing cost-effective designs.