Steven Groák

Economics and technological change: Some implications for the study of the building industry

This paper is a preliminary attempt to indicate a unified theory of economic and technological change in the building industry. It is limited to a consideration of that part of industrial change which might be termed “deliberate”, that is, cases where analysis and identification of situations and trends has helped form conscious strategies, albeit that the outcomes of those interventions and actions may not have corresponded to what was intended or foreseen. We reject the idea that the building industry is only the unconscious and passive object of external forces acting upon it, and offer instead an interpretation in which various elements of the industry (sometimes powerful “leading” firms acting alone, more often, sets of similarly placed firms, or formal/informal groupings or organisations of firms) and of government move towards a “view of events” which then underpins and shapes the policies, strategic development and choices of government and of firms, which in turn influence the direction and pace of economic, organisational and technical change in the industry. It follows of course that we do not regard the building industry as “the last refuge for the application of perfect competition theory”, nor as a locus classicus for theories of exogenously induced change based on one or another kind of simple determinism (whether determination by the “logic of scientific discovery” or by the “logic of changing user demands”). Deliberate change at the level of the industry or more accurately, the set of building industries must be regarded as “policy” and much of this paper reviews implicit or explicit attempts to define such policies. The paper is principally concerned with work in and on the UK, notably over the last 30 years or so, although it is hoped that the theoretical ideas may have wider application. Students of industrial change appear to approach the phenomenon either by explaining economic change through technical change or vice versa. We regard such a separation as unhelpful generally; in studying building activity it leads to the omission of a major aspect of industry, the building process. Rosenberg (1982) and Stoneman (1983) review very thoroughly the current awakening of

Practice and education

A different and richer educational use of R & D activities will emerge, argue Steven Groak, Senior Lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College London and CIB Working Commission coordinator on Building Research and Education W89, Frederick Krimgold, Associate Dean of Research and Extension, College of Architecture and Urban Studies, Virginia Polytechnic and State University. The concept of R & D at the workplace and the implications for education were discussed at W89s London meeting in the autumn of 1988.

Robust technologies: Study of some aspects of industrial change which reflect the condition of building technologies and current preoccupations with patterns of building failure

The beginnings of a theoretical model for the dynamic behaviour of change in the building industry are presented by Steven Groak of the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College London. It is proposed that the overall technological environment is turbulent, which derives from a combination of forms of inherent uncertainty and responses which are particular to the building industry.

UK architectural education: Trends and issues☆☆☆

Abstract This paper gives some general background on student numbers, higher education, the architectural profession in UK. It describes some of the recent developments in UK higher education generally, in particular those which may impinge on architectural and related education. It explores recent policy and financial pressures upon the UK schools of architecture, including concerns about the level of technical competence, and argues for a policy of expansion—based in part upon broadening the application of design education and on the wider use of studio-based project-mode for other areas of education. It relates some of this to current ideas for continuing education. Brief connections are made to recent changes in the context of architectural practice and to other areas of construction, as well as work in geography. It concludes with a series of questions about what differentiates schools from practice and how change is occurring in education.

Contractor's uncertainty and client intervention

Abstract The paper analyses possible trends in contract interventions by owner/clients using management systems originally devised for the contractors own purposes. The approach explores forms of uncertainty, as perceived by the contractor, and the consequences of different client interventions. It concludes that these phenomena are part of a trend to much greater control by owner/clients of the whole building process.