The tropical coral reef ecosystem is currently facing an unprecedented ecological crisis, and it remains unclear how reef regeneration projects are progressing without efficient artificial reef designs that hold the long-term potential to become a fully integrated part of the coral reef ecosystem. As a response to the urgency and relevance in preserving coral reefs, the paper introduces a novel framework for artificial coral reef design as a differentiated approach towards artificial coral reefs − demonstrating the feasibility of digitally designing such ‘living architecture’ according to multiple context and performance parameters. The framework combines many technical components such as algorithmic design, high precision underwater monitoring, performance analysis and simulation, that were tested and combined in such a way for the first time. The main contributions to the field include the Ecosystem-aware design approach, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for coral reef design, algorithmic design and fabrication of Biorock cathodes, new high precision UW monitoring strategies, long-term real-world constructed experiments, new digital analysis methods and two new front-end web-based tools for reef design and monitoring reefs. Additionally, the framework offers a theoretical and practical background for computational design, ecology-led design and marine conservation.