Designing as a Court of Law

Abstract

It is contended that legal proceedings, as they have evolved from Antiquity onwards, embrace important and effective principles for collaborative competition in pursuit of a common goal, in the considered context, justice. Seven principles contributing to this goal can be recognised: "hear both parties", reasoned judgment, right to appeal, use of both logical and rhetorical arguments and reasoning, standardized proceedings and documents, public nature of proceedings, as well as dedicated and structured space.It is contended that the court of law can be used as a metaphor of what is happening in design. There are wishes, concepts and solutions competing against each other. For reaching the best outcome, each wish, concept or solution needs to be promoted and defended in the best possible way, and a reasoned judgment among them has to be done. Then, the question arises whether the seven principles found in legal proceedings have relevance for this collaborative, yet competitive pursuit of a common goal in design, namely the best solution in view of customer requirements.For initial exploration of the relevance and validity of the seven principles in design, a case study was undertaken. It turns out that all the seven principles are being implemented. The outcomes of the project are clearly better than in projects managed in the traditional way; although it is not possible to trace back the benefits only to the collaborative principles and related practices, their emergence, and continued use, provide solid circumstantial evidence on their efficacy.

Study on the construction workforce management based on lean construction in the context of COVID-19

“…In lean thinking, variability in the flow of work increases the amount of waste and impedes system performance, as a consequence, it is possible to eliminate waste and reduce losses in connection with the management of flows (Koskela, 1992; Sacks, 2016; Hamzeh, 2009). Based on a list of seven wastes presented by Ohno (1988) in the Toyota Production System (TPS), “making-do”, which refers to starting a task before all prerequisites is ready, was proposed as the eight categories of waste and even the “core and lead waste” in construction (Koskela, 2004).…”

Lessons Learned on Teaching Choosing by Advantages

“…• Argumentation: Many beginners struggle with the use of ethos (appeal to authority or credibility), logos (appeal to logic), and pathos (appeal to emotion) in the argumentation component of CBA (Arroyo et al 2014). Being more conscious of these strategies, as well as using legal procedure principles, can enable teams to realize a more equitable decision-making process (Koskela et al 2018). Decision makers should consider the needs of the project or organization, the desired competence level of the learners, and the context of the learning environment before deciding on the type and extent of the training.…”

Workers' relational identification with supervisors influences safety behaviour in construction projects

“…Individuals with psychological resilience underpinned by positive emotions are more likely to voice their concerns related to work-related issues, including safety, with their co-workers. Construction projects are typically characterised by tasks that are iterative in nature (Fellows and Liu, 2012; Koskela and Ballard, 2006; Koskela and Howell, 2001) and require cross-functional coordination and integration of technical knowledge, information and components (Thamhain, 2004). In this environment, psychologically resilient individuals are better equipped to handle inherent complexity involved in construction projects and are more likely to pursue cross-functional coordination to get the tasks completed.…”