Sebastian Macmillan

Mapping the conceptual design activity of interdisciplinary teams

Abstract The conceptual design phase of any project is, by its very nature, a vibrant, creative and dynamic period. It can also be disorganised with much backtracking accompanying the exchange of information between design team members. The transfer of information, ideas and opinion is critical to the development of concepts and as such, rather than being recognised as merely a component of conceptual design activity, it needs to be understood and, ultimately, managed. This paper describes an experimental workshop involving fifteen design professionals in which conceptual design activity was tracked, and subsequently mapped, in order to test and validate a tentative design framework (phase and activity model). The nature of the design progression of the various teams is captured and analysed, allowing a number of conclusions to be drawn regarding both the iterative nature of this phase of design and how teams of professionals actually design together.

The development of environmental initiatives in tourism: responses from the London hotel sector.

In tourism, natural resources and the physical environment are regarded as important assets to enhance the product. Practitioners in this multisectoral industry (including hotels) perceive the environment and its resources to be a crucial feature in attracting more tourists. Today, most sectors of industry face pressure to improve their environmental performance. Hotels as a component of tourism are no exception. Hotels can act to reduce their environmental impacts and, collectively, make a substantial contribution to improving the quality of the environment. A wide range of publications offer guidance and advice on the actions hoteliers may take to alter their practices and thus address environmental issues. Yet, to date, it is not clear how many hotels are applying these recommendations, nor which actions share this common goal. Equally, the lack of operationalisation in environmental principles, implicit within many codes of practice, is seeing the emergence of a gap between theory and practice in these matters. It is the nature of this gap that is explored. Additionally, an assessment is undertaken of what the tourism industry is doing to improve environmental performance, and a case study is presented based on a detailed survey of environmental management practices in 42 London hotels. Copyright

Development and verification of a generic framework for conceptual design

Abstract The rapid and dynamic information and knowledge transfer between designers during the conceptual phase of building projects can result in disorganised behaviour within the team. Team members can become frustrated by the lack of a common understanding of the manner in which the design activity is being performed and the direction in which the process is progressing. Evidence suggests that design teams are better equipped to undertake design activity when in possession of a general programme of events or activities through which they are likely to pass than when no such structuring concept is held. This paper describes the development and verification of a structured framework, which has been generated to aid and support the interdisciplinary team in undertaking conceptual design.

Patterns of interaction in construction team meetings

Sir John Egans 1998 report on the construction industry (Construction Task Force 1998) noted its confrontational and adversarial nature. Both the original report and its subsequent endorsement in Accelerating Change (Strategic Forum 2002) called for improved working relationships—so-called ‘integration’—within and between both design and construction aspects. In this paper, we report on our observations of on-site team meetings for a major UK project during its construction phase. We attended a series of team meetings and recorded the patterns of verbal interaction that took place within them. In reporting our findings, we have deliberately used a graphical method for presenting the results, in the expectation that this will make them more readily accessible to designers. Our diagrams of these interaction patterns have already proved to be intuitively and quickly understood, and have generated interest and discussion among both those we observed and others who have seen them. We noted that different patterns of communication occurred in different types of meetings. Specifically, in the problem-solving meeting, there was a richness of interaction that was largely missing from progress meetings and technical meetings. Team members expressed greater satisfaction with this problem-solving meeting where these enriched exchanges took place. By making comparisons between the different patterns, we are also able to explore functional roles and their interactions. From this and other published evidence, we conclude that good teamworking practices depend on a complex interplay of relations and dependencies embedded within the team.

Chronicles of the revolution

The title of this book may convey that its contents are going to be bland and rather technical. Nothing could be farther from the truth, however. Not only does it tell the inside story of the UK government’s engagement with the industry and support for reviews and programmes between 1993 and 2003, but also it does so with the pace and style of a well-written novel. David Adamson and Tony Pollington give a first-hand account of the setting up of the government-supported review of the UK construction industry undertaken by Sir Michael Latham in 1993–94 and what happened to the review and its implementation when a new government was elected in 1997 and launched its own review led by Sir John Egan.

Improving design quality and value in the built environment through knowledge of intangibles

Raising design quality and value in the built environment requires continuous improvement, drawing on feedback from clients or occupiers and other industry players. The challenging task for architectural and engineering designers has always been to use their intellectual knowledge to deliver both forms of benefits, tangibles and intangibles, in the built environment. Increasingly as clients demand best value for money, there is a greater need to understand the potential from intangibles, to see projects not as ends in themselves but as means to improved quality of life and wealth creation. As we begin to understand more about how - through the design of the built environment - to deliver these improvements in outcomes, clients are better placed to expect their successful delivery from designers, and designers themselves are better placed to provide them. This paper discusses cross-disciplinary issues about intangibles and is aimed at designers, clients, investors and entrepreneurs within the built environment. It presents some findings from a minuscule study that investigated intangible benefits in a new primary school.

The right vision for construction R&D? Responding to the Fairclough Review

Background When BRE was privatized in March 1997, it was offered guaranteed funding on an annually decreasing scale for 5 years under its Framework Agreement with the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). During this transitionary time, it was expected increasingly to compete for government research funds and to raise the fraction of its total income that it received from industry. By 2001, the 5 years was coming to an end and Sir John Fairclough was commissioned by Nick Raynsford (the Minister for Construction at that time) ‘to provide an independent view of what future role government should play in supporting construction research’.

One step forward and three back: a study of the patterns of interdisciplinary conceptual design

Design activity, particularly at the early stages of a project, is recognised as being dynamic, highly iterative and non-linear. However, under the rigours and pressures of the contemporary project environment, designers are being urged to undertake early design activity in a far more programmable, and thus manageable, fashion. Within this environment iterative, or cyclic, design progression is often criticised, with the concept of ‘going round in circles’ being one that is generally discouraged (Hickling, 1982). However, design is a learning activity and, owing to the complexity of contemporary building projects, it is often only by moving ahead to improve knowledge of the problem, before taking a step back to re-address a problem with improved understanding, that the design process can progress (Lawson, 1980). This is possibly the most commonly recognised type of iterative design progression among design researchers and practitioners. However, there are many other types of iterative design progression that are common to early-stage design activity. For the last two years the MDP (Mapping the Design Process during the conceptual phase of building projects) research project has endeavoured to improve understanding of conceptual design activity. It has been undertaken at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, in close collaboration with Loughborough University and a number of construction industry firms. The research team has gathered empirical evidence which suggests that, although every design project is unique, there are commonalties within the iterative structure of periods of design progression across projects.