Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent sustainable Construction - I3con

More documents

Recommendations

Info

SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION HANDBOOK 2 Fragmentation of the industry has stifled value for money as each party wants to meet their own goals and priorities. Each party will have their own agenda and will mobilise their resources, knowledge and practices, as part of the project, to meet their interests. These interests are mainly financial to achieve a competitive edge over their competitors (Elmualim et al. 2009). The goal within construction is to deliver a well designed, quality product to meet clients’ requirements, on time and within budget (Adamson and Pollington 2006). However, this is rarely the case. The evolution of the industry Construction has for centuries been the work of independent craftsmen working for a client. New forms of construction have required new organisation to cope with massive demand, such as the organisation of the process by the general contractor. Today, the industry relies heavily on subcontracting which has prevented effective teamwork and communication between the parties to a construction contract. Demand is very different to other industries as clients define their requirements and the building is built to their specification (Morton 2008). Design Status Quo “The industry continues to design resource inefficient buildings, utilising polluting materials, overspecifying inefficient equipment, with poor attention to long-term communities” (Halliday 2008). The problems of poor industry performance can be associated with the common model for UK construction. The client commissions an architect who designs and then builders are found to build (Layard et al. 2001). The architect then relies on the services engineer to make them habitable (Turrent 2007). Although there has been a shift towards construction managers taking control of the whole design and build process, work is still predominantly based on this common model. Issues of buildability are restricted at the design stage which inhibits speed, effective learning and cost control. Cost saving has dominated the construction industry’s decision making which does not always provide value (Halliday 2008). The traditional design method of construction gives little thought to the operational phase particularly from sustainable design point of view (Sassi 2006). The client finds it hard to imagine how they or the end-users will operate within a building. Without engaging the end-user, the creative design process is lost, which often leads to long term dissatisfaction. A common industry complaint is that members of design teams act independently of each other or may act against each other (Blyth and Worthington 2001). The need for change Clients and end-users argue a building takes too long, costs too much or is of poor quality standards. “Why when so much has changed has so much stayed the same?” (Morton 2008). The most documented examples include the early reports by Sir Michael Latham titled ‘Constructing the team’ and Sir John Egan titled ‘Rethinking Construction’ which both demand the ultimate goal of further satisfying clients’ requirements. The Latham report of 1994 aimed to make the customer the leader of the process. Prior to the 1990’s, he saw the industry as fragmented and hierarchical with a reluctance to introduce innovative solutions to customers’ requirements. Clients did not always get what they asked for. Recommendations aimed to align the design function with the interests of the client, with particular regard to the organisation and management of the construction process (Adamson and Pollington 2006). Latham gave a significant role to clients in promoting good design to provide value for money in terms of both cost and cost in use. A well designed building may not require a high level of specification, yet many buildings in the UK are over specified at an unnecessary cost. Problems emerge through lack of co-ordination between design and construction (Latham 1994, Egan 1998). Following the substantial critique of the Latham report, the Egan report of 1998 proposed a change revolution. There was deep concern that the industry was under-achieving in terms of meeting its own needs and those of the client. Egan found there were too many clients that still equate price with cost driving them to select designers almost exclusively on the basis of tendered price. The drivers for change include: 216
HANDBOOK 2 SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION • Committed leadership of management to drive improvement. • Customer focus and end-user value. • Drive quality through innovation, on budget, on time, reduce wastage, after-sales care and reduced operational costs (Egan 1998). A fundamental shortfall in the industry is the separation of design from the project process which results in poor building performance in terms of flexibility in use, operating and maintenance costs and sustainability. Designers must work in close collaboration with other participants in the project process and design for whole life costs. However, the same problems can still be observed today, well over ten years after publication. Inefficiency and waste accounts for almost 30% of the capital costs of construction and much of this could be avoided through co-operative working (Laud 2008). Design is still fragmented from the construction and operational phases and buildings are not performing to their intended outputs. This fragmentation inhibits performance improvements and prevented continuity of teams that are essential for efficiency (Egan 1998). The shortfalls of the UK Construction Industry require significant changes in culture, attitudes and working practices. The trend in construction procurement is to move away from fee competition towards a selection process based on the balance of quality and price. Competitive tendering based on lowest cost could become a thing of the past (Nicholson and Quentin 2005). Collaboration throughout the construction process is becoming essential. A holistic view of construction taking into account design and construction, management of the facility and demolition should be used (Martin and Guerin 2006, Duffy 2000). This idea can be orientated towards the primary objective of creating and sustaining appropriate built environments for users. This requires a shared vision amongst key stakeholders for maximising value across the lifecycle (Barrett 2008). The conventional construction process is generally planned, designed and constructed; which often acts as a barrier to utilising the skills and knowledge of suppliers and constructors effectively in the design and planning of projects (Egan 1998). He went on to state successful building requires the close involvement of the client as it is the client who knows what they want and produce buildings that will meet occupational needs into the future. The requirements of the end-user also need careful consideration. Construction Briefing and Design The importance of good design The design of a facility must consider the needs and requirements of the end-user to meet organisational requirements. It is primarily in the early stages where a project team fails, due to the difficulties in appreciating the complex technological interrelationship between elements, systems and components used in modern buildings (Clements-Croome 2004). Design decisions should not be limited to one person, but involve a number of professions to consider all possible outcomes. It is important to get the design right as more can be done to enhance value and meet the needs of endusers. Design decisions should focus on the end-product (Atkin et al. 2003). Class (2008) calls for extensive communication between building design and construction, and maintenance. If a building costs £10million to construct, then in 20 years the building will have cost £20m to operate and maintain. Other debated ratios include 1:5:200 where for every one pound spent on design and construction there are £5 spent on maintenance and £200 on the running cost of business. Therefore, design is the most crucial stage in the process and should have scope for adaptation throughout the construction stage. Most of the effort in construction is in reducing the 1, but designers need to reduce the 5 and 200 through good briefing and design (Macmillan 2004). Briefing is the process by which options are reviewed and requirements of the client are articulated to produce a brief which will form the design of the building. As users have become more demanding, the brief has become essential for Architects to design what the customer actually wants, rather than what the designer thinks they want (Fisher 1986). Flexibility and suitability of building design is currently under scrutiny (Spedding 1994), designing within the parameters of the brief is essential. 217
Page 1:
Industrialised, Integrated, Intelli
Page 4 and 5:
SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION HANDBOOK 2
Page 6 and 7:
Page 8 and 9:
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
Page 102 and 103:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
Page 108 and 109:
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117:
Page 118 and 119:
Page 120 and 121:
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179: SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION HANDBOOK 2
Page 260: SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION HANDBOOK 2
show all

Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent sustainable Construction - I3con

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?