Levels of Innovation in Architectural Design

There are different methods for evaluation of architectural design. Novelty, utility and contribution to the society are relevant concerns to be considered in such methods. Most of methods, do not address novelty sufficiently. In TRIZ theory (Theory of inventive problem solving) in order to describe novelty, five levels of innovation have been defined. These levels have been recognized by investigation on thousands of registered patents. Levels have been defined based on the quantity and quality of contradictions that have been solved in patents. Also the theory has considered required domains of technology and knowledge and required number of trial and error for solving problems in each level. This study aims to investigate about adaptability of these five levels to evaluation of architectural design projects. Several aspects and approaches including FPM (function/principle/market) model, level model for art, system changes, solved contradiction and required knowledge were compared. In conclusion a formula for calculating levels of innovation in architectural projects was proposed. The proposed formula comprehensively measures the innovation levels of building system and subsystems. Keywords: Design evaluation, levels of innovation, TRIZ, architectural design.