Positioning Architectural Design Management

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Rivalry between the collective use of IT tools and working methods of design teams

Nowadays a high variety of IT tools is available for communication purposes in design processes on individual and group level. Despite this, the exchange and sharing of design documents collectively in design and engineering teams might be limited mainly, due to habits, preferences, working methods and rivalry between the collective use of IT tools in such product development. Changes in habits and preferences for collective use of IT tools might be realized by training and management power. However, adoption of collectively to be used tools, like project websites, is depending heavenly on the attractiveness for users in daily work. Based on empirical research outcomes it is indicated that rivalry between collective used tools and differences in working methods of users might be main barriers for attractiveness of these tools in daily work. Applying a framework for analyzing and categorizing of the frequency of use of IT tools for team communication, the authors explain the appearance of rivalry between tools, limiting the effectiveness in daily work and not affecting team communication and performance. By comparison of working methods in different sectors authors explain the necessity of changes in working methods in design and engineering in the building & construction industry on organizational and inter-organizational level for successful adoption of collectively to be used IT tools in team communication

Stimulating Value Creation in the Initial Phase of Urban Developments

City planners, project developers, architects and many other players initiate urban developments when certain sub-developments, within that area, trigger a ‘need’ to intervene. The various players involved are consequently analyzing the power structures of key stakeholders in the environment, and thus analyzing the opportunities for development. All actions, or sometimes still only creations in one’s head, usually lead to the initial steps of an urban development project. However, the early decisions made are based on ill-defined problems and weak, intangible goals. Participants are confronted with messy and unstructured criteria for decision-making; goals may conflict and are highly subjective, so directing such initial decision-making is a delicate process. In an attempt to manage these conflicting interests, urban development practices increasingly integrate human values in designing objectives. So based on literature and contemporary Dutch urban development practices we assume that the goal of urban development is value creation. Value for all stakeholders as well as value for the geographical area subjected to various interventions. This led to the following research question: How can value creation be stimulated in the initial phase of urban developments? The research project concerns a qualitative exploration for an advisory company focusing on real estate and urban development. We focused on finding conceptual and empirical determinants of value creation in Urban Development. Based on the findings a value-creating framework was constructed as a management tool for real estate companies

Workshops as practicum's to improve integration and knowledge exchange in collaborative design

The cooperation between the various disciplines interacting in an architectural design process is often inadequate or lacking. This is due to the growing complexity of building design processes involving many experts from different disciplines, having a different knowledge background, view and approach to solutions for design and construction. This lack of collaboration is usually shown by the next aspects; a lack of integration in the team, knowledge gaps between design and construction, failing flows of information and communication and feedback between designers and practitioners. In order to increase the potential of creating better integral design concepts, practitioners tend to use support tools. A design management approach to support design teams integrally in order to improve collaboration and affecting communication needs to focus better on the process aspects of conceptual design. Such a design management approach should easily link all necessary information and knowledge of the involved disciplines (architects, engineers, contractors). To that account in this paper, a support tool is presented that stimulates members of design teams to use collectively a specific method for collaborative design that incorporates the characteristics of an integrated product model. The aim of the management intervention is to support design activities by the use of a framework for the design process to structure information and knowledge exchange between and with commitment of all participants to optimize design solutions. This method, the so called Morphological Overviews, is based on Morphological Charts. The concept will be explained on its functioning and be discussed by the results and insights gained through a series of Workshops executed in the period 2005-2008 with practitioners from the Dutch construction Industry. Also is discussed how partly, elements of this approach can be used in architectural design management. The paper finalizes with conclusions and recommendations for further research

Collaborative Design Workshops: Explanation of an Analysing Model for Knowledge Exchange

During the period of 2006-2009 a workshop setting to train Collaborative Design Teams was developed as part of the Dutch Program for Permanent Education for Professionals. This Collaborative Design Workshop has to stimulate members of collaborative design teams, Architects, Roofers and Installers, to share, use and develop collectively specific information of innovative roofs. The aim of the workshop is to support design activities by the use of Integral design method with its design tool Morphological Overviews (MO) to structure information and knowledge exchange between and with commitment of all participants to optimize design solutions. The paper describes the set up for analysing design team’s explicit knowledge exchange and knowledge development. By using the Design Research Methodology a step by step approach is executed to develop the supportive method. First the development of the analysing approach is described. The second part shows the final procedure; how the data are collected and the different ways to analyse them; the Morphological Analysis and the Functional Sub-solution Video Analysis. First results of the analyzis of the Collaborative Design Workshop are presented and discussed