Arts and Humanities

Abstract: European cities are undergoing a structural convergence: demographic ageing and migration-driven diversity are not parallel trajectories but co-present conditions negotiated within the same neighborhoods. Yet governance frameworks addressing inclusion, cohesion, and spatial equity operate above the scale at which these dynamics are produced. Consequently, Europe’s inclusion policy remains under-equipped to foster genuinely intercultural, intergenerational, and gender-inclusive urban environments. The everyday thresholds where such integration is enacted—doorsteps, rooftops, street edges—are conceptually rich within architectural discourse but underdeveloped as operative instruments of urban transformation. This paper addresses this gap through TU[fem]III , a dialogical-relational constellation for design research. Its epistemic core, urban interiority, is drawn from Lahore’s Walled City, where a dense, continuously inhabited threshold ecology sustains long-term cohabitation across communities and generations, mobilized here as theory-generating spatial intelligence. Its praxis interface, Inter-Cultural Nodes (ICNs), builds on a tested lineage of design-research in Palermo’s Albergheria/Ballarò neighborhoods. Operationalized in Cardiff, where legislative commitments intersect with multicultural cohabitation, the framework deploys a Threshold Research Toolkit—drawing, prototyping, and staging—to structure an accountable South→North→South exchange. The contribution is threefold: extending interior architecture epistemology to the urban scale; establishing a reciprocity-driven design-research model; and introducing threshold-scale instruments into European inclusion governance.

Abstract: Approved conservation projects that remain unimplemented for years require reassessment before site work begins. This study examines the 2012–2014 conservation project for the Selime rock-cut complex as a record set that may be reactivated for future implementation. The project combined a 54-station local Total Station network with laser and manual measurements, restitution drawings, deterioration records, material analyses, and approved restoration drawings. Historical interpretations were graded as C1 direct evidence, C2 strong inference, C3 bounded hypothesis, or C4 unresolved. Technical validity was assessed through historical/spatial basis (H), current risk (R), and operational compatibility (O), while implementation traceability was recorded separately through U. Applied to eight selected components, the framework shows that safety, circulation, platforms, and service decisions require current verification, whereas stratigraphic and reconstructive interventions remain constrained by evidential strength. The study proposes a two-track reactivation framework separating technical validity from implementation traceability for delayed conservation projects under comparable site conditions.

Abstract: Universities operate beyond their conventional roles of education and research, functioning as socio-spatial environments where public life is continuously produced through everyday interactions. While previous studies have examined either campus spatial configuration or student practices separately, less attention has been paid to how spatial configuration, spatial affordances, and student-led practices interact to produce campus publicness. Addressing this gap, this study investigates the socio-spatial production of publicness across the North and South campuses of Bahçeşehir University (BAU), an inner-city university located in the dense urban context of Beşiktaş, Istanbul. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach that integrates Space Syntax analysis (Angular Segment Analysis and Visibility Graph Analysis), affordance-based observations of in-between spaces, and semi-structured interviews with student clubs. This analytical framework enables an examination of how spatial configuration creates opportunities for co-presence, how architectural affordances support sustained interaction, and how students appropriate these spatial potentials through artistic co-production and collective practices. The findings demonstrate that campus publicness cannot be explained by spatial configuration alone. Rather than occupying either the most integrated circulation routes or the most segregated areas, student clubs consistently appropriate moderately integrated and visually accessible in-between spaces that balance accessibility with opportunities for prolonged interaction. These spaces—including lounges, appropriated classrooms, gardens, and informal thresholds—support repeated rehearsals, performances, and collaborative activities that transform latent spatial potential into sustained forms of collective public life. The study further shows that, while digital communication reinforces these practices, they remain primarily rooted in face-to-face interaction within the campus environment. By conceptualizing this process as specialized campus publicness, the study extends discussions on campus publicness by demonstrating that public life emerges through the dynamic interaction of spatial configuration, architectural affordances, and repeated student practices. It further contributes to urbanism and campus design research by illustrating how inner-city university campuses function as distinctive socio-spatial environments for collective cultural production.

Abstract: Access to home ownership has become an axis of structural inequality between generations, in a context in which the real estate market increasingly operates as a mechanism for transferring wealth from younger cohorts to older ownership cohorts. To propose the theoretical-methodological design of a new composite indicator, the Intergenerational Housing Equity Index (IEIH), aimed at measuring and comparing internationally the disparity in access to housing between generational cohorts, with the possibility of integration into the monitoring systems of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11. A qualitative documentary analysis of academic sources indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, as well as technical reports of multilateral organizations published between 2019 and 2026, was carried out, adapting the ten-step protocol of the Manual on the Construction of Composite Indicators of the OECD and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. Four constituent dimensions of the IEIH were identified (economic access, wealth and wealth transfer, regulatory framework and housing policy instruments, and generational housing adequacy), twelve candidate indicators, and a normalization, weighting, and aggregation procedure with sensitivity analysis. The IEIH complements the existing indicators of affordability and housing adequacy by explicitly incorporating the comparative-generational axis, and lays the methodological foundations for its empirical validation through a panel of experts (Delphi method) and a pilot study in Latin American countries.

Abstract: Terraced houses remain the dominant and most widely inhabited housing type in Malaysia, yet their repetitive cellular organisation routinely produces a structural tension between market-standardised spatial layouts and the diverse, evolving practices of everyday domestic life. Over six decades of comparatively limited design innovation have reinforced this standardisation, making the terraced cell an undertheorised site of spatial negotiation. This article aims to describe the position of cellular operation in negotiating the living context of Malaysian terraced-house design. Employing a constructivist, qualitative multiple-case study methodology, the article examines three anonymised contemporary terraced-house cases (CSA, CSB and CSC) through desk review, semi-structured interviews, spatial observation and cross-case interpretation. Thematic data coding and analysis were conducted using ATLAS.ti and organised through the Thematic Analysis Matrix (TAM), a structured qualitative instrument for systematic thematic exposition. Typo-morphological diagramming was applied to spatially visualise operational, abstractive and estrangement dimensions of each case. Findings reveal that cellular operation is not merely a functional matter of plan efficiency; rather, it operates through the negotiation of thresholds, public–private gradients, domestic display, rear and central spatial layering, multigenerational accommodation, family care and gendered domestic practice. Across the three cases, the terraced cell emerges as an active medium through which occupants and designers exercise agency, enact choice, achieve perceived comfort and construct adaptive domestic meaning. The study argues that the living context of terraced housing is best understood as an operational relationship among practice, formality and situation, rather than as a predetermined arrangement of rooms. These findings contribute to housing-environment and domestic well-being research by demonstrating how modest spatial operations—without reliance on high-technology flexibility or extensive post-occupancy renovation—can support everyday well-being, agency and family life within constrained typological boundaries.

Abstract: The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into higher education marks a radical epistemic shift, unsettling long-held assumptions about how knowledge is made, taught, and judged. This paper argues that the theory of living structure offers a timely foundation for liberal arts and whole-person education in the era of AI. Living structure—Christopher Alexander’s term for the recurrent hierarchical order that makes environments feel alive—is treated here as two faces of one phenomenon: living, the right-brain perception of wholeness, and structure, the left-brain order that can be computed through fifteen geometric properties, two fundamental laws, two design principles, and the computable L- and B-scores. From this basis the paper develops a Living Structure + AI paradigm, a new episteme for higher education, deliberately so ordered because living structure is held to be more fundamental than AI: structure is the order of nature and culture, while AI is a tool that gives that order new expression. The argument is grounded in teaching practice led by LivableCityLAB, under its own teaching-research project and in partnership with Residential College 1, spanning architecture and city-science courses or theses, an undergraduate whole-person common-core course (Self and Wholeness), and a new postgraduate course (Experiential Learning: Living Structure + AI Inspired Design). Across these settings, students read built environments structurally, declare a skeleton, and use AI as a structural mediator while making and inhabiting real spaces. Across four campus renovations (total N = 33 students) and the two courses (N = 49 undergraduate; N = 7 postgraduate), structural scores (the L- and B-scores) rose in every renovated case, and these architectural and perceptual measures converged with preference tests and visual-attention analysis; course-embedded, rubric-based assignments provide complementary, though not psychometrically validated, evidence of students’ engagement with the paradigm. The paper closes by arguing that the deepest contribution of Living Structure + AI to liberal arts education is not on paper or on screens but down to earth—in the daily life spaces in which students learn to feel, measure, and remake wholeness.

Abstract: Higher education institutions increasingly seek learning environments that support diverse cognitive needs while advancing sustainability through the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. Although research demonstrates that environmental factors such as lighting, acoustics, spatial organization, flexibility, and environmental quality influence learning and well-being, architects still lack practical methodologies for translating interdisciplinary evidence into design decisions. This study proposes an evidence-informed neuro-inclusive design methodology for adaptive reuse university learning environments. Building on a previously developed framework comprising five design principles—Sensory Regulation, Lighting Control, Spatial Predictability, Flexibility, and Emotional Comfort—the methodology was comparatively applied to three adaptive reuse learning environments at the University of Naples Federico II. A qualitative multiple-case study approach examined how the framework informed architectural decision-making across different spatial configurations, educational functions, and heritage constraints. The findings demonstrate that the framework provides a consistent evidence-informed design process while generating context-specific architectural solutions rather than standardized outcomes. The study contributes a transferable methodology that bridges interdisciplinary knowledge and architectural practice, supports the design of cognitively accessible learning environments, and demonstrates how neuro-inclusive principles can be integrated into adaptive reuse projects without compromising the architectural integrity of historic educational buildings.

Abstract: The scientific validation of virtual reconstructions requires explicit and retrievable connections between geometry, documentary sources, and interpretative reasoning. This paper presents CRMvr, a CIDOC CRM-aligned application ontology designed to document the 3D modelling of reconstructed architectural heritage. Comprising 25 classes and 113 property declarations, CRMvr formalises the decomposition of heritage objects into architectural components, the geometric construction of their digital representations, the authorship and versioning of alternative hypotheses, and the evaluation of source uncertainty, accuracy, and dimensional provenance. The ontology distinguishes dimensions that are indicated in, deduced from, or interpreted beyond the available sources. CRMvr is implemented in ResearchSpace as a knowledge graph and tested through the virtual reconstruction of the aedicula of the Porta Aurea in Ravenna. In parallel, the HBIM components are classified through a building SMART Data Dictionary grounded in the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus, establishing a shared terminological layer between the IFC model and the knowledge graph. The current implementation links the semantic record to an external IFC viewer, enabling the model and its element-level attributes to be accessed from ResearchSpace. The results demonstrate the framework's potential to improve the transparency, reusability, and long-term accessibility of virtual reconstruction data, while also revealing limitations concerning geometric scope, IFC consistency, and the maintenance of shared vocabularies.

Abstract: The integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) into construction companies depends less on software acquisition than on the formation of competent, well-structured teams capable of sustaining collaborative digital workflows across the project lifecycle. The objective of this study was to analyze the roles, competencies, organizational barriers, and emerging technological demands that shape the formation of efficient BIM teams. A qualitative documentary approach, structured as a scoping review inspired by the PRISMA-ScR protocol, was adopted, drawing on 15 sources indexed in Scopus, ScienceDirect, and related academic databases, selected for their direct relevance, methodological rigor, and recency. The findings show that BIM role nomenclature remains highly fragmented, with as many as 35 distinct role titles identified across 36 international guides and standards, while competency frameworks converge on a three-tier structure distinguishing core, domain, and execution competencies. Organizational adoption is shaped by an interacting set of technical, financial, organizational, and human barriers, particularly acute in small and medium-sized enterprises, and is substantially supported by Common Data Environments, whose practical implementation nonetheless remains challenged by tool multiplicity and governance gaps. Industry data indicate that poor communication and inaccessible project information account for up to 52% of rework globally, underscoring the centrality of coordinated team structures. The accelerating integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into BIM workflows is reshaping the competency profile expected of BIM teams, while structured training models remain unevenly available, especially for site-level operatives. It is concluded that efficient BIM team formation requires the simultaneous alignment of role clarity, competency development, collaborative information infrastructure, and organizational culture, with direct implications for construction management practice and for curricular design in architecture and engineering education.

Abstract: Digital survey and three-dimensional modelling have become central tools for the documentation and interpretation of architectural heritage, yet their epistemic role in the study of early Christian architecture still requires critical assessment. This article examines three early Christian sacella in northern Italy—Sante Teuteria e Tosca in Verona, Santa Maria Mater Domini in Vicenza, and San Prosdocimo in Padua—in order to evaluate how digital models can support architectural analysis without replacing direct engagement with the material monument. The study combines terrestrial laser scanning, photographic documentation, point-cloud processing, orthophotos, and architectural drawings to investigate masonry evidence, spatial organisation, roofing traces, and volumetric relationships. The results show that digital models make it possible to compare architectural elements that are difficult to observe simultaneously on site, especially in relation to construction sequences, domed spaces, subsidiary vaulted compartments, and traces of earlier phases. At the same time, the analysis demonstrates that digital visibility remains partial, since material presence, light, scale, and bodily experience cannot be fully reproduced in a virtual environment. The article argues that digital models are most valuable when understood as interpretative mediators: tools that extend observation, support comparison, and encourage renewed attention to the architectural fabric itself.

Abstract: The increasing diversity of museum visitors is driven by globalisation, migration, and re-ligious tourism, posing pressing accessibility challenges, particularly language barriers. Museums in Makkah, as pivotal sites of Islamic heritage, attract millions of visitors of var-ying linguistic backgrounds annually. This research examines the effects of multisensory elements (visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory) on visitor comprehension, spatial en-gagement, and satisfaction in the presence of language barriers. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this study begins with a quantitative analysis and examines the role of multisensory elements in the visiting experience using a multilingual survey of 321 international visitors. This is followed by examining the association between these ele-ments and the probability of revisiting the museum to understand a visitor’s behavioural intention to revisit the museum. Finally, a thematic analysis of the open-ended questions was used to identify the pros and cons of using multisensory elements in museums. The findings validate that tactile experience is demonstrated to be a significant predictor of re-visit intention, but auditory experience is not found to be significant. Crucially, the adapted anthropological concept of embodied piety, defined here as the active cultivation of spiritual and historical connection through disciplined physical and sensory engage-ment, emerged as a culturally resonant framework distinct from Western ocular-centric models. However, implementation must balance immersive design with spatial autonomy to mitigate sensory overload and technology usability barriers. Success requires culturally sensitive, co-created spatial design that accommodates diverse cultural scripts regarding physical contact and public interaction. Strategically integrated multisensory design func-tions as a non-linguistic interpretive pathway, enhancing comprehension, engagement, and inclusion for linguistically diverse visitors to Islamic heritage sites, with pronounced cultural variation requiring curatorial calibration rather than monolithic approaches.

Abstract: The office building sector concentrates a significant proportion of urban energy consumption and carbon emissions, while simultaneously facing the organizational reconfiguration driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing demand for occupant well-being. The objective of this study was to comprehensively analyze design principles, environmental, economic and social impacts, certification frameworks and barriers to implementing sustainable architecture in office spaces. A qualitative approach of documentary review was adopted, inspired by the PRISMA-ScR protocol, through categorical thematic analysis of 63 sources indexed in Scopus and ScienceDirect, selected from an initial corpus of 152 records after the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The findings show that the integration of passive strategies, indoor vegetation and smart technologies (BIM, IoT, artificial intelligence) reduces operational energy consumption between 15% and 70%, while the life cycle assessment allows for a reduction of up to 50% in environmental impacts through recycled materials and envelope insulation. Certified buildings report productivity increases of between 2.5% and 26%, cognitive performance improvements of up to 61% and rent and market value premiums of between 10% and 12% in Europe and the United States, although in emerging economies adoption faces cost overruns of between 5% and 21% with payback periods of less than four years. Relevant gaps persist in the integration of social criteria within certification systems (DGNB, LEED, BREEAM) and financial, organizational and technical training barriers that limit the adoption of BIM and sustainable materials, particularly in Latin American contexts. It is concluded that the sustainability of contemporary offices requires a holistic framework that articulates technology, public policy and organizational culture, with direct implications for curricular updating in architecture and construction management programs.

Abstract: This article presents the results of a research study aimed at designing and evaluating sustainable housing (SH) in post-disaster contexts in Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, Mexico, following the 2017 earthquakes. The proposed model integrates four funda-mental dimensions: i) housing design using traditional architecture; ii) analysis of the environmental impact of materials using indicators of CO2 emissions, energy consump-tion, and thermal performance; iii) comparative evaluation of construction costs relative to conventional housing (CH); and iv) implementation of a Social Production of Habitat (SPH) approach. A mixed-methods design was adopted, involving literature review, data collection through an environmental and hygrothermal impact study, comparative cost estimates, and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that the use of local, low-impact materials, together with participatory processes, not only reduces costs and environmental externalities but also strengthens the social fabric and contributes to a more equitable reconstruction that is contextualized within traditional architecture. The housing model developed is proposed as a replicable alternative in areas affected by natural disasters, not only in Mexico but also in other countries.

Abstract: This article examines Byzantine-period churches and nineteenth-century Greek Orthodox churches in Bursa and its surroundings as an interrelated corpus of Christian sacred architecture in Ottoman Bithynia. Rather than treating the two groups as separate historical categories, it asks how Byzantine spatial and liturgical memory was selectively retained, transformed and made visible under late Ottoman conditions. Drawing on architectural documentation, conservation records, field observations and comparative regional literature, the study analyses plan typology, apse and bema organization, narthex and gallery arrangements, structural systems, material use, façade articulation, ornamentation and public visibility. The comparison shows that nineteenth-century churches did not preserve Byzantine forms unchanged. While domed masonry systems, pastophoria and complex centralized plans were reduced or reconfigured, key liturgical principles, including east-west orientation, apsidal focus and the separation of the sacred core, remained persistent. At the same time, timber roofs, composite masonry, galleries, legible façades and occasional bell towers reflected local building practice, legal reform and communal representation. Bursa thus emerges as a regional case in which post-Byzantine architectural memory was neither passively inherited nor simply lost, but actively reworked within the material, social and spatial conditions of the Ottoman province and within wider debates on Anatolian Christian heritage studies.

Abstract: This article examines non-Muslim cemeteries in Istanbul as multicultural urban heritage landscapes, focusing on the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery as a case exemplar. Rather than treating cemeteries solely as religious or funerary spaces, the study frames them as material archives of urban memory, minority presence, spatial displacement, and heritage governance. Based on literature review, historical documentation, mapping, and field observation, the article first outlines the transformation of non-Muslim cemeteries from the Ottoman period to the Republican era, with particular attention to their relocation, disappearance, and reuse within processes of urban modernization. It then analyses the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery in terms of its foundation, multinational administrative structure, architectural and funerary features, transferred memorial elements, digitisation practices, and conservation initiatives. The case demonstrates how cemetery heritage can reveal the layered relationship between urban development, multicultural identity, and sustainable conservation. The article argues that surviving non-Muslim cemeteries in Istanbul should be understood as living memory spaces and cultural landscapes whose protection requires documentation, public awareness, and multi-actor heritage governance.

Abstract: The coexistence of analogue drawing, digital software rendering and image generation using artificial intelligence (AI) has intensified a disciplinary debate on which mode of representation is most relevant in each phase of the project process, without there being a systematic comparative framework that integrates its technical, pedagogical and ethical dimensions, particularly in Latin American architectural training contexts. The objective is to comparatively analyze the strengths, limitations, and implications of analog drawing, digital rendering, and AI generation in architectural presentation, in order to identify hybridization patterns and gaps in educational policy. A qualitative documentary analysis of narrative-thematic scope was developed, informed by the PRISMA guidelines, on sources indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect and Latin American regional databases, mostly published between 2021 and 2026, processed through thematic and categorical coding with triangulation of sources. A five-phase periodization was identified in the evolution of architectural representation; the comparative advantage of each mode is concentrated at different points in the design process (analogue drawing in conceptual ideation, digital rendering in technical documentation, and generative AI in rapid exploration and communication with non-specialist audiences); Likewise, unresolved gaps persist in terms of authorship, intellectual property and displacement of project competencies. Therefore, a triangular synthesis model between the three modes of representation and a set of curricular recommendations aimed at hybrid literacy and the ethical governance of generative AI in architecture programs is proposed, which constitutes a contribution to the formulation of educational policies in the region.

Abstract: The San Francisco Javier Psychogeriatric Centre in Pamplona occupies the former Manicomio Vasco Navarro, a psychiatric complex designed by Máximo Goizueta, be-gun in the late nineteenth century and brought into use in the early twentieth century. Over time, land transfers, additions, refurbishments and functional changes altered its configuration, producing technical and healthcare obsolescence. Nevertheless, the complex preserved the essential logic of a pavilion-based healthcare model: low-rise buildings, ground-floor galleries, courtyards, gardens and open spaces shaped by a hy-gienist and therapeutic understanding of architecture, in which sunlight, ventilation, domestic scale and outdoor space formed part of the care environment. This article analyses the refurbishment not as the preservation of a historic image, but as the reac-tivation of the complex’s typological logic, environmental qualities and tectonic ade-quacy. In the context of the renewal and adaptive reuse of healthcare infrastructures, the study examines functional reprogramming, contemporary extensions through new volumes, material continuity and innovative construction solutions applied to existing heritage. The refurbishment and extension of psychiatric units U1.1 and U1.2 are se-lected as a case study in the sustainable management of healthcare heritage through a strategy of prosthetic memory. The research draws on primary documentation from the architects’ archive and site supervision process.

Abstract: The generational gap in access to real estate has emerged as one of the most relevant socioeconomic phenomena of recent decades in developed countries. While Baby Boomers and Generation X had access to home ownership under favorable macroeconomic conditions (affordable mortgage credit, rising real wages, and permissive regulatory frameworks), the Millennial (1981–1996) and Z (1997–2012) generations face structural barriers of unprecedented magnitude. This study comprehensively analyzes the economic, regulatory, social, and technological factors that determine the intergenerational disparity in real estate ownership rates, with emphasis on Anglo-Saxon and European contexts, and their implications for developing economies. A qualitative approach of systematic documentary review was adopted, complemented by statistical-descriptive analysis of institutional secondary data (U.S. Census Bureau, OECD, European Central Bank, Urban Institute). The selection of sources prioritized publications indexed in Scopus and WoS (Q1-Q2). The findings show a systematic erosion of housing affordability: the price-to-income ratio climbed from 6.1 in 2000 to 8.5 in 2021, and the share of affordable housing markets fell from 97% in 1969 to 41% in 2022. The confluence of wage stagnation, student debt burden, zoning restrictions, and financial crisis cycles sets up a scenario of structural exclusion from the housing market for young generations. The generation gap is not the result of changes in individual preferences, but of a systemic transformation of the housing market driven by structural and public policy factors. The study provides a comprehensive analytical framework with implications for the formulation of intergenerationally equitable housing policies.

Abstract: Historic water infrastructure in cities has often been treated as a technical system, while its role in shaping urban form, spatial organization, and everyday life has received less attention. Focusing on the old city of Mardin, this study examines underground water infrastructure as a constitutive element of urban morphology in a settlement shaped by arid climatic conditions and steep topography. The study adopts a multi-scalar analytical approach combining QGIS-based mapping, LiDAR-based three-dimensional documentation of selected structures, archival research, field observation, and oral testimony. Street fountains, water elements associated with religious and public buildings, hammams, and wells were mapped in order to reconstruct the spatial logic of the historic system and its relation to the built environment. The findings show that Mardin’s gravity-based underground water system functioned as an urban-spatial infrastructure that shaped the distribution of water access, public nodes, architectural organization, and everyday practices across both public and private space. They also show that the transition to centralized modern water systems disrupted the integrated relationship between water, topography, and urban form, while rendering the social and spatial contexts of water increasingly obscure. The study argues that water in Mardin functioned as a key structuring element of urban morphology and everyday spatial practice, embedded in the historical relationship between infrastructure, topography, and the built environment.

Abstract: Courtyards and biophilic design have independently been recognized for their contributions to environmental performance, occupant well-being, and architectural quality. However, research has generally treated these approaches separately, resulting in limited understanding of their combined role within sustainable architecture and the absence of a comprehensive framework for their integrated assessment. This study aims to address this gap by developing a conceptual assessment framework based on the Integrated Value Model for Sustainability Assessment (MIVES). Drawing on an extensive review of the literature on courtyard architecture, biophilic design, environmental psychology, and multi-criteria decision analysis, the study proposes a hierarchical structure comprising requirements, criteria, and indicators representing environmental, biophilic, human well-being, and functional dimensions. The framework further incorporates weighting strategies and value functions to enable the aggregation of diverse performance variables into a unified Integration Sustainability Index. The proposed model provides a transparent and adaptable methodology for evaluating courtyard–biophilic integration while explicitly accounting for experiential and restorative aspects that are often overlooked in conventional building assessment approaches. The framework establishes a theoretical foundation for future empirical validation and supports evidence-based decision-making in sustainable architectural design across diverse climatic and cultural contexts.