Quantifying human values in building layout design through a means-ends approach

Human Values play a crucial role in building design; yet their relationship with design attributes often remains implicit. In Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) design, these values are not explicitly addressed due to their intangible and subjective nature. This challenge is further compounded by existing design evaluation frameworks, which rely on fixed, objective and tangible design evaluation metrics. These frameworks lack the flexibility to incorporate project-specific evaluation metrics or quantify Human Terminal Values associated with a design alternative. A study that introduced the Stakeholder Values Mapping Framework (SVMF) proposed a conceptual approach to systematically capture the relationship between human terminal values and design attributes, enabling values-driven design development. Building on the Stakeholder Values Mapping Framework (SVMF), this study introduces a structured three-stage methodology for evaluating layouts using Human Terminal Values as evaluation metrics. In the first stage, structured representations of values and their relationship with design attributes are developed based on Means-Ends Chain theory. In the second stage, frequency thresholds are applied to select Design Performance Indicators (DPIs) and develop the DPI–Terminal Values relationship matrix. The final stage computes scores for DPIs and Terminal Values using analytical tools and weighted averaging. The proposed method is applied to evaluate a set of layout alternatives, and the results are analysed to evaluate its effectiveness and limitations. The findings suggest that this methodology offers flexibility to incorporate project-specific metrics to evaluate design alternatives based on Human Terminal Values.