Content area
Abstract
This study investigates the subject of design and construction integration by focusing on the use of information and communication during the delivery process of a building facade and on approaches to improving such a use.
First, the main factors that affect the communication process are classified anp organized in a conceptual framework. These factors are the type of information that is communicated, the cognitive capability of receivers, psychological attitudes of senders and receivers, and type of transactional organizational setting in which communication takes place. Using this framework, the study analyzes and classifies the informational and organizational characteristics of the building process, as it is conventionally assumed to take place, and it discusses the use of information technology.
Second, a case study of the design of a granite veneered facade of a high-rise building is undertaken. The focus is on the formal and informal information generated and communicated during the execution of the design, purchase, engineering and testing of the facade system. The study is based on the analysis of the project documentation and on the direct observation of the execution of functional activities and extensive interviews.
Third, a critical comparison between the "assumed" and "observed" building and information processes is made by using the context of the developed framework. The assumed building process is conrolled by the administrative provisions of contractual agreements and is based on formal relationships and roles, the sequential solution of functional problems and the transfer of large sets of certain or codified information between process participants. In the observed building process the incompleteness of contractual provisions is integrated by the development of cooperative (federative) attitudes. The process is also based on informal relationships and roles, the concurrent consideration of interdependent functional problems, and transfer of small sets of uncertain or uncodified information between process participants.
The argument that emerges from the study is that the implementation of the building process is supported by the use of a considerable amount of uncodified information and the establishment of organizational mechanisms such as informal procedures and relationships that facilitate the common interpretation and understanding of information and that are not contemplated in the contractual systems that regulate the process. The integrative capabilities of present information technologies are not fully exploited. Their development and use have privileged the processing of codified information at the firm level only, but it has neglected to support the exchange and processing of uncodified information between the firms engaged in the building process.
Improvement efforts should be directed toward: a) the consideration of this type of informational exchange and organizational arrangements and b) the development of commu.ication technologies that facilitate the continuous interaction between building firms and the negotiation of the uncertain meaning of information. The study concludes with an assessment of how information technology can be used to improve and make more efficient the building process.