Bridging urban analysis and architectural design through digital modelling and fabrication

This paper examines how bachelor-level architecture students translate urban analysis into design-relevant contextual information while engaging with analogue, digital and hybrid mapping, plus modelling and making practices. Thirty-two context study portfolios are analysed using a mixed methods approach that combines workflow mapping through Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN 2.0) with directed qualitative content analysis across four process oriented domains: data acquisition and grounding, analytical mapping, digital and physical modelling and exploration/interrogation. The BPMN model makes explicit students' decision pathways, read alongside their reflections. Results show that output quality hinges on the strength of cross-domain transitions, rather than on individual tools. Effective workflows exhibit strong coupling between domains: multi-modal data and contextual insights inform mapping and modelling, mappings are progressively refined and linked to explicit design criteria aligned with the brief, and digital outputs directly structure spatial representations used in physical models. Instead, ineffective workflows accumulate accurate artefacts without cross-domain synthesis (e.g., digital models lacking atmospheric or material integration). Thus, the paper argues for process-explicit pedagogies that better scaffold hybrid workflows, supporting the translation from analysis to design while preserving exploratory and creative agency.