A Framework for Construction-Driven Designs

Abstract

Continuously increasing demand for faster project delivery of emergency and non-emergency projects, project complexity, and pandemic caused price escalations and material shortages requiring real time pricing and use of available equipment are showing that construction industry needs to shift toward creating designs that will be driven by the construction process or construction-driven designs. The construction-driven designs enable faster than fast project delivery or flash tracking by adopting the mindset that construction is the last phase of the design and by integrating the building approach with the design where the means and methods of construction drive the design development process. However, the development of such designs requires the involvement of the key stakeholders such as contractor, major subcontractors and equipment vendors, and operations and maintenance personnel at the appropriate time in the design. This research presents the framework which addresses the key areas needed to develop construction-driven designs such as (1) formalizing the construction-driven design definition; (2) determining construction-driven design characteristics and the preferred level and timing of involvement of the key stakeholders (contractor, major subcontractor, major equipment vendor, and operations and maintenance personnel) in the design development process; (3) determining key stakeholder’s (contractor, designer, and owner) experience requirements for the successful development and execution of construction-driven designs; (4) identifying potential contractual, licensure, and insurance barriers that can affect contractor’s early involvement in the design and providing recommendations to overcome those barriers; (5) ranking project delivery methods based on their effectiveness and suitability to develop and implement construction-driven designs; (6) identifying and ranking the best practices specific to construction-driven designs; and (7) providing a tool that will allow a company or a project team to measure their readiness to develop a construction-driven design for a project.