Detailed design and constructability

The British Construction Industry has been criticised for many years. Comparisons have shown that construction in the United States, Canada, France, Germany and Australia is cheaper and quicker than present practice in the UK. In the UK the traditional system of construction, separates the two main disciplines of design and construction. The design is carried out by a consultant and the construction is carried out by a contractor. As a result of this the construction industry is suffering from many problems such as design complexity, increasing costs and longer construction duration. This thesis addresses the detail design stage of the design process. Detail design decisions have a significant impact on cost and time. The UK contractors have no important influence at the design stage, because designers do not take adequate and accurate account of construction methods, actual costs and the value of time. The traditional system prevents this involvement. To overcome this problem, constructability was cited as being c, apable of improving project performance. There is, however no clear understanding of why or how to formally incorporate construction knowledge as part of the process of design. The designer could reduce problems for the contractor by being more aware of the construction process and the potential delays and inefficiencies which are often introduced during design. Similarly, the contractor could aid the design by contributing his knowledge of site practices to the designer and improving communications during the construction process. The thesis focuses on integrating construction expertise with the design process at the detail design phase. It explores both the designer's and the constructor's view points, and presents a design process model.