Abstract:This paper describes a formal, unified methodology for design and management in order to facilitate AEC collaboration. Issues related to the AEC industry pave the way for a description of the collaborative AEC environment and its requirements for supporting information systems. Next, constraint management is described as the core of the unified methodology. A system architecture is briefly presented with an illustrative example. A discussion of integration philosophies and a comparison with parallel research in the area of system integration in the civil engineering domain conclude the paper.