Recent advances in design and decision support systems in architecture and urban planning

As editors of this volume we would like to express our gratitude to the contributing authors who have delivered these highly relevant and inspiring chapters and to the international scientific committee for their help in the review and editing. Special thanks go to our colleagues Mandy van de Sande, Marlyn Aretz, and Leo van Veghel, who were great in organising the conference and took care of everything that made it a pleasant and comfortable event. Eindhoven, July 2004 Jos van Leeuwen and Harry Timmermans Conference Chairs x DDSS 2004 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE Alan Bridges, UK Kees Dorst, NL Aleksander Asanowicz, PL Luca Caneparo, IT Aloys Borgers, NL Mark Clayton, USA Anders Ekholm, SE Mark Gross, USA Andy Brown, UK Michael Batty, UK Anthony Yeh, HK Milton Tan, SG Ardeshir Mahdavi, AT Mitsuo Morozumi, JP Atsuyuki Okabe, JP Nancy Cheng, USA Bauke de Vries, NL Omer Akin, USA Bob Martens, AT Philip Steadman, UK Dirk Donath, DE Pierre Leclercq, BE Frances Brazier, NL Ray Wyatt, AU Gilles Halin, FR Richard Klosterman, USA Guilermo Vasquez de Velasco, USA Rivka Oxman, IL Hannu Penttila, FI Robert Woodbury, CA Henri Achten, NL Sevil Sariyildiz, NL Jin-Yeu Tsou, HK Sheng-Fen Chien, TW Joachim Kieferle, DE Stefania Bandini, IT Johan Verbeke, BE Tay-Sheng Jeng, TW John Stillwell, UK Theo Arentze, NL Jose Duarte, PT Thomas Kvan, HK Jose Kos, BR Wassim Jabi, USA INTRODUCTION The International Conference on Design & Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning is organised bi-annually by the Eindhoven