Collaborative Building Design

2001

A number of studies have contributed to the design and development of effective collaborative design environments. They have focused on the communication of interrelated team members, the creation of shared understanding and vision, and shared discovery of design solutions. However, only few studies have focused on the design or the development of collaborative design environments that would allow all the members of the design team to plan their processes, enact according to their plan, monitor and influence their performance in following the planned processes, and prevent them from deviating unconsciously from their desired performance. This paper introduces the constructs of a distributed process management environment (DPME) which was designed to stimulate self-sustainability of effective team performance in an collaborative design environment by supporting: (a) the shared creation of a process plan, (b) the enactment of a process according to its plan, (c) the monitoring of the outcome and process of the team, and (d) the control of the team performance. It presents the findings of a study conducted for evaluating the effectiveness of the DPME in meeting the conditions required for collaborative building design.

One of the core problems within construction industry is knowledge exchange between the different participants during the design-and engineering process (Lechner 1991, Cross 1992, Reymen 2001, van Aken 2005). To link the parts of the knowledge-triangle practice, education and research forms the basis for possible solutions-in the context of the building design-engineering (Quanjel&Zeiler 2003). This context can be represented by the Product-Process-Organization model (Bax&Trum 2000). At the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) in collaboration with TNO Built Environment and Geosciences, first experiments to find a format for supporting Design Collaboration, started in 2000. Set up where trainingworkshops for the members of BNA/ONRI (Royal Dutch Organization of Architects / Dutch Organization of Advisory Consultants), for design-teams including participants with the same educational background. More recent, a firs set up was done for design teams with participants with different educational backgrounds. These quasi-experiments (Campell&Stanley 1971) are coupled on the basis of a concrete task from the practice and the PhD-research EURACTIVE ROOFer by E. Quanjel at the TU/e-TNO. The objective of this project is to improve the knowledge exchange between design participants of active roofs in product development as part of the total building design and its comfort-systems. Salter and Gann (2002) found that face-to-face interaction and the use of sketching are still the most important elements for developing new ideas and solving problems. Given this aspect and the characteristics of the problem definition, a methodology to support the design team during the development of the building design is introduced. This method is based on the Methodical design methodology; a matrix orientated approach used in the mechanical engineering domain (van den Kroonenberg 1978). Within the setting of Methodical Design several design-support tools are used: the Morphological Overview and the Kesselringmethod (Zwicky 1969, Kesselring 1954). These practical tools from the theoretical method are connected with the design practice, as reflexive practice, through quasi-experiments for architects and roofer-engineers (Schön 1983). The experiments will be done in a serial with feedback ; the Kesselring-method as well as the results of the quasi experiments itself. To distinguish the knowledge-exchange aspects, Bales' Interaction Process Analysis model is used (Bales 1950, Emmit&Gorse, 2007). The result of these experiments is a design decision support tool for both architects and roofer-engineers in the setting of Collaborative Design.

Citeseer

2011

The ineffectiveness of current design processes has been well studied and has resulted in widespread calls for the evolution and development of new management processes. Even following the advent of BIM, we continue to move from one stage to another without necessarily having resolved all the issues. CAD design technology, if well handled, could have significantly raised the level of quality and efficiency of current processes, but in practice this was not fully realized. Therefore, technology alone can´t solve all the problems and the advent of BIM could result in a similar bottleneck. For a precise definition of the problem to be solved we should start by understanding what are the main current bottlenecks that have yet to be overcome by either new technologies or management processes, and the impact of human behaviour-related issues which impact the adoption and utilization of new technologies. The fragmented and dispersed nature of the AEC sector, and the huge number of small organizations that comprise it, are a major limiting factor. Several authors have addressed this issue and more recently IDDS has been defined as the highest level of achievement. However, what is written on IDDS shows an extremely ideal situation on a state to be achieved; it shows a holistic utopian proposition with the intent to create the research agenda to move towards that state. Key to IDDS is the framing of a new management model which should address the problems associated with key aspects: technology, processes, policies and people. One of the primary areas to be further studied is the process of collaborative work and understanding, together with the development of proposals to overcome the many cultural barriers that currently exist and impede the advance of new management methods. The purpose of this paper is to define and delimit problems to be solved so that it is possible to implement a new management model for a collaborative design process.

Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe)

In this paper we view the process of collaboration as a social setting, rather than a problem of communication. It involves and is impacted by social, nontechnical aspects, such as lack of shared understanding, conflict, availability and motivation of the participants, and other factors that can facilitate or impede the goals of the collaborative enterprise. We propose to use a social and psychological approach. The ideal model should be a collaborative design system that can facilitate the socially constructed interactions among participants, as well as the communication of information. The proposed system should enable participants to assess the typical problems of collaboration. We build up our effort towards this goal by developing a representation system of collaborative design process. In this research we attempt to map collaborative design process into process design by using our proposed representation system. Our intention is to enable the existing system visually representing the integration of design stage to the whole construction process: since project planning until building operation.

… of Collaborative Engineering–State of the Art …, 2007

Building is one ofthe most widespread human activities, as it involves a far greater number of people and professional profiles than all other industries and absorbs about half of world energyconsumption. Its multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary naturemakes thed esign-construction process, as well as the building product,increasingly complex. It is thus always moredifficult, with usual design methods and efficiently to obtain correctly designed solutions and to favour creativity, while respecting assigned time schedules and budgets.These are very well known problems, on which abundant efforts and resources have been spent in pursuit of an efficient solution. One generally agreed solutioni s efficient collaboration among the design actors, although all the forms and tools proposed hitherto do not allow all the difficulties embedded in the problem itself to be overcome.The great potentialities of the new media are considered to be crucialfor the resolution ofthe previously mentioned problem, although, until now,this approach has raised new problems than it has solved the old ones. To provide a more efficient collaboration amonga ll the actors involved in the design process,this paper presents a model of the structure ofthe buildingd esign process based on the Collaborative WorkEnvironment paradigm that allows us to define a systems upporting integrated buildingd esign. Its philosophy is to follow through the actual designp rocess in order to allow actors to behave as they are accustomed. Its structurerelies on the dialectics among distributed knowledge bases and a shared (and agreed) one, while the designs olution workspace on its turn can be conceived so as subdivided into a private one, specific to any actor, and one shared among them. Human actors are supported by intelligent assistants. The system semantically translates the information exchanged (bothformally and informally) among the actors, allows incoherent/favourable situations to be highlighted and managed in real time, and can facilitate the onset and dissemination ofc reative ideas. System implementation has preliminarily beenp resented asa game, in order to avoid unnecessary complexity while retaininggenerality, so thatcan be used asan e-learning tool.

2005

Citeseer

2000

Establishing an environment for design tool integration is a prerequisite for network-based distributed work. It was attempted to solve the problem of efficient, user-friendly, and fast information exchange among operators by treating it simply as an exchange of data. But the failure of IGES, CGM, PHIGS confirms that data have different meanings and importance in different contexts. The STandard for Exchange of Product data, ISO 10303 Part 106 BCCM, relating to AEC field (Wix, 1997), seems to be too complex to be applied to professional studios. Moreover its structure is too deep and the conceptual classifications based on it do not allow multi-inheritance (Ekholm, 1996). From now on we shall adopt the BCCM semantic that defines the actor as ”a functional participant in building construction”; and we shall define designer as “every member of the class formed by designers” (architects, engineers, town-planners, construction managers, etc.). Architectural design: present situation

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to managing the supply chain from the perspective of design which the paper refers to as integrated collaborative design (ICD).Design/methodology/approachBuilding on a substantial program of research using a range of methodologies previously reported, the concept of a design chain is described the argument is made that the industry needs to center the development of integrated teams (as proposed in accelerating change) around collaborative working of all parties involved in the design process.FindingsThe research recognizes that the construction sector is too often focused on the short‐term objectives of projects, rather than long‐term business strategy and organizational relationships. The ICD approach involves three steps: identifying tasks (process management); allocating roles (as part of supply chain management); and focusing design solutions to deliver value.Originality/valueThe paper outlines the principles and appro...