In our digital age, the technology applications have been influencing all aspect of our life, and extending this effect to the way in which our professions are performed. Our goal of having smart cities is associated to the methods that govern our work. Smart design solutions have become essential part of the architectural design process in general. The digital media and the computer use have made their own importance and way inside the conventional ways of designing and thinking, to the extent that the digital design methods become inevitable. This paper investigates how building service systems can be successfully integrated in the architectural design and how the new digital methods used in the design process can benefit both the design of building service systems and the architectural design itself. The literature review covers the methods used to coordinate all building service systems. The paper methodology is to synthesize the extensive literature review as well as the data collected and analysed from the construction industry. Based on this basis, the paper proposes a framework of integrating the design of building service systems into the conceptual phases of architectural design, in order to avoid or detect any clashes or conflicts. © 2019 Institution of Engineering and Technology. All rights reserved.