The SCALE Guidelines: A Framework for Standardized Case Reports in Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

Background

An established publication type in medicine, case reports allow clinicians to share novel or unusual observations. Their strengths include the ability to identify new phenomena, facilitate communication between practice and research, generate hypotheses, and provide insights into conditions that it may be unethical or impractical to study directly. Architecture and environmental design lack an equivalent method for systematically sharing practice-based insights.

Purpose

This paper establishes clear, structured guidelines for documenting and preparing case reports in architecture and environmental design.

Methods

Using a comparative and conceptual approach, this study adapts the CARE Guidelines—developed for case reporting in medicine—to the context of design practice. The study draws conceptual parallels between stages of clinical care (e.g., diagnosis, treatment, outcomes) and those of the design process (e.g., problem identification, interventions, post-occupancy evaluations). Building on this comparison, it introduces a new set of guidelines for architectural case reports.

Findings

The resulting framework, the SCALE Guidelines (Standardized Case reports for Architecture and the buiLt Environment), consists of 12 components that provide a standardized structure for writing design case reports. The guidelines will help practitioners share real-world insights in a format suitable for scholarly dissemination that promotes consistency, completeness, and rigor in reporting.

Conclusions

Although evidence-based design aims to inform design decisions in practice through research, case reports serve the opposite function: informing research decisions through insights from practice. The formal recognition of case reports in design as a distinct publication type can help bridge the gap between design practice and research.