Abstract
Building Information Modelling (BIM) has emerged as a pivotal object-oriented environment for supporting decision-making throughout the architectural design process, enabling automated compliance checking across diverse design criteria. However, Qualitative Architectural Features (QAFs)—such as complexity and balance—play a central role in façade aesthetics yet remain insufficiently represented within BIM due to their inherently subjective nature. This study addresses this gap through a systematic review of computational approaches for QAF representation, with a particular focus on evaluating their readiness for integration into BIM.The analysis reveals a pronounced imbalance in existing research, where the majority of representation approaches remain confined to theoretical formulations, while BIM-based implementations are limited. Furthermore, computational representation efforts are concentrated on a limited subset of QAFs, leaving several façade-related features unaddressed. The evaluation also indicates that only a small number of representation methods achieve both sufficient semantic alignment with BIM ontology and robust empirical validation, highlighting a significant maturity gap toward BIM-based representation.By synthesizing these findings into a staged maturity framework, the study establishes a structured understanding of the current state of QAF representation research and identifies critical gaps that inform future directions toward the integration of architectural aesthetics into BIM.