A strategy for multiprofessional design of buildings

1984 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Manning

The conventional way by which buildings are designed is for the specialist members of design teams (structural, mechanical, electrical, and other engineers, acousticians, and others) to develop in detail the comprehensive concepts of generalists. Thus, architects first develop overall scheme designs, after which consultant engineers and others develop specific subdesigns for the structures, mechanical systems, lighting, and so on that will make that particular overall scheme work. There are some important objections to this kind of process, not the least the handicap that is thus placed upon the input of the engineering and other consultants. A "three-axis design strategy" by which, from the earliest stages of a design problem, solutions are built up from the best common compatible options of all the contributing consultants is described. Key words: building design, systematic design methods, design strategy, multiprofessional, integration, design process, design decisions.

Author(s):  
Wim Zeiler ◽  
Perica Savanovic ◽  
Emile Quanjel

Integral Building Design is done by multi disciplinary design teams and aims at integrating all aspects from the different disciplines involved in a design for a building such as; archtitecture, construction, building physics and building services. It involves information exchange between participants within the design process in amounts not yet known before. To support this highly complex process an Integral Building Design methods is developed based on the combination of a prescriptive approach, Methodical Design, and a descriptive approach, Reflective practice. Starting from the Methodical Design approach by van den Kroonenberg, a more reflective approach is developed. The use of Integral Design within the design process results in a transparency on the taken design steps and the design decisions. Within the design process, the extended prescriptive methodology is used as a framework for reflection on design process itself. To ensure a good information exchange between different disciplines during the conceptual phase of design a functional structuring technique can be used; Morphological Overviews (MO). Morphology provides a structure to give an overview of the consider functions and their solution alternatives. By using this method it is presumed that it helps to structure the communication between the design team members and a such forms a basis for reflection on the design results by the design team members. This method is used in the education program at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven and was tested in workshops for students and for professionals from the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects (BNA) and the Dutch Association of Consulting Engineers (ONRI). Over 250 professionals participated in these workshops.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathilde Landgren ◽  
Signe Skovmand Jakobsen ◽  
Birthe Wohlenberg ◽  
Lotte Bjerregaard Jensen

Purpose In recent decades there has been a focus on reducing the overall emissions from the built environment, which increases the complexity of the building design process. More specialized knowledge, a greater common understanding and more cooperation between the stakeholders are required. Interdisciplinary design teams need simple and intuitive means of communication. Architects and engineers are starting to increase their focus on improving interdisciplinary communication, but it is often unclear how to do so. The purpose of this paper is to define the impact of visually communicating engineering knowledge to architects in an interdisciplinary design team and to define how quantifying architectural design decisions have an impact during the early phases of sustainable building design. Design/methodology/approach This work is based on a study of extensive project materials consisting of presentations, reports, simulation results and case studies. The material is made available by one of the largest European Engineering Consultancies and by a large architectural office in the field of sustainable architecture in Denmark. The project material is used for mapping communication concepts from practice. Findings It is demonstrated that visual communication by engineers increases the level of technical knowledge in the design decisions made by architects. This is essential in order to reach the goal of designing buildings with low environmental impact. Conversely, quantification of architectural quality improved the engineer’s acceptance of the architects’ proposals. Originality/value This paper produces new knowledge through the case study processes performed. The main points are presented as clearly as possible; however, it should be stressed that it is only the top of the iceberg. In all, 17 extensive case studies design processes were performed with various design teams by the 3 authors of the paper Mathilde, Birthe and Signe. The companies that provided the framework for the cases are leading in Europe within sustainability in the built environment, and in the case of Sweco also in regards to size (number of employees). Data are thus first hand and developed by the researchers and authors of this paper, with explicit consent from the industry partners involved as well as assoc. Professor Lotte B. Jensen Technical University of Denmark (DTU). This material is in the DTU servers and is in the PhD dissertation by Mathilde Landgren (successful defence was in January 2019). The observations and reflection is presented in selected significant case examples. The methods are descriped in detail, and if further information on method is required a more in depth description is found in Mathilde Landgrens PhD Dissertation. There is a lack in existing literature of the effect of visualisation in interdisciplinary design teams and though the literature (e.g. guidelines) of integrated design is extensive, there is not much published on this essential part of an integrated design process.


Author(s):  
W. Ernst Eder

Students learning design engineering at times need a good example of procedure for novel design engineering. The systematic heuristic-strategic use of a theory to guide the design process – Engineering Design Science – and the methodical design process followed in this case study is only necessary in limited situations. The full procedure should be learned, such that the studentcan select appropriate parts for other applications.This case example is presented to show application of the recommended method, and the expected scope of the output, with emphasis on the stages of conceptualizing. The case follows a novel design problem of a gangway for ship-shore transfer for the Caravan Stage Barge.


Author(s):  
Michael D. McNeese ◽  
Brian S. Zaff ◽  
Clifford E. Brown ◽  
Maryalice Citera ◽  
Jonathan Selvaraj

The need to understand the design process in all its complexity is motivated by an interest in the development of tools and technologies that would be capable of aiding collaborative design teams. This development effort depends upon an understanding of design activities as they occur within a real world context. Observations of design activities that are made without direct communication with the design team members may fail to capture many of the subtler aspects of the process - aspects that are best understood when described by the design team members themselves. In order to supplement observational studies, this paper presents a case study in which a dialog with members of a variety of collaborative design teams was established in order to elicit information about the nature of collaborative design. A knowledge acquisition technique, concept mapping, was used to achieve an understanding of the role of human factors specialists within the collaborative design process specific to the Air Force's system acquisition program. Results highlight various findings about the nature of design problem solving such as the way different organizational settings influence human factors input in the design process/product. The paper discusses the usefulness of concept mapping to capture in-depth design knowledge and how this type of knowledge complements other approaches to understanding design.


Author(s):  
Claudia M. Eckert ◽  
Ola Isaksson ◽  
Chris F. Earl

Design processes are subject to many uncertainties. Changes resulting from the need to respond to external uncertainties are one of the main drivers of engineering change and therefore for iteration in design processes. Another important cause of iteration in design processes arises from the dependencies in design information which is being generated as part of the design process itself. At the beginning of the design process engineers need to make an informed guess about the values of parameters that they need and can achieve. These values are passed on to others, who base their decisions on them. Design decisions are distributed and iterative among design teams, customers and suppliers. Communicated parameter values are uncertain in two different but related ways. First, there is the confidence, precision and commitment that the designers have in the values they specify. Second there are uncertainties in the values that can be achieved with the technology the new design employs. These issues become particularly challenging when they span design teams, customers and suppliers as they iterate to converge on a mutually effective solution. This paper looks at this type of convergent iteration through an example from the aerospace industry, which illustrates how uncertainty in operating temperature at the beginning of the design process requires a thorough understanding of the temperature ranges that solution alternatives, at different degrees of maturity, can operate under. This paper argues that the key to managing convergent iterations lies in communicating the available ranges of parameter values and in understanding how design margins have arisen in existing technologies. These margins on product parameters provide potential performance which exceeds immediate functional requirements. The paper develops and formalizes the concept of design margins and argues that margins are included into products for a variety of reasons that are not always transparent to different team members. Analysis of margins enables design companies to reason in terms of ranges of values describing the scope for design change in meeting customer and supplier requirements without being forced into unplanned iteration loops.


1988 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-678
Author(s):  
Claude Bédard

The process of designing buildings presents characteristics that set it apart from the design process in other engineering fields. Traditionally, computers have been assigned the number-crunching and bookkeeping tasks in building design activities. Also, few participants in the design team have used computers on a regular basis. However, many changes are taking place which will affect the way a building design is carried out and the contribution computers could make in the process. All factors appear to advocate greater use of computers to achieve better designs. Three active areas of development are finally presented to illustrate new roles computers could assume in future building design projects. Key words: building design process, algorithm, synthesis/analysis, preliminary design, integration.


Author(s):  
W. P. Neumann ◽  
J. Winkel

A case study in Volvo Powertrain is conducted to examine the distribution of responsibility for human factors in the companies’ engineering design process. Design decisions with human factors impact, and hence system performance implications, are identified in the design of both the product and the production system in a chain of decisions, spread across multiple stakeholder groups. Thus the organisational structure of the engineering design process appears to influence the ability to handle human factors appropriately at each stage of design. Responsibility (although perhaps not accountability) appears to be distributed throughout the engineering design process. Thus human factors aspects require careful coordination throughout engineering design.


2021 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 03005
Author(s):  
Francisco Xavier Martínez Rodríguez ◽  
Níckolas Alfredo Bernal Ramirez ◽  
Ana Cristina García Luna Romero

The relationship between biomimetics as a design strategy and architectural skin as a construction technique, both of these strategies can be implemented in a building design process to develop more sustainable project, now a days there is a pollution problem in Mexico and one of the main causes is the waste generated by construction, in addition, just a few investors are interested in the application of bioclimatic strategies, sustainable technologies and building materials because they imply a large investment and constant maintenance, which is why an architectural skin designed based on the responsive skin of the crocodile is proposed, which is expected to be seen as a model for future generations of Mexican architects for them to implement these strategies and methodologies in their design process.


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