Exploring Interdisciplinary Collaboration in the Detailed Design Phase of Construction Projects

Abstract

The foundation for successful collaboration in the detailed design phase of construction projects is aligning the knowledge and views of designers and contractors. In such design development meetings, architects, consultants, main contractor, subcontractors, and client representatives face several challenges in moving from conceptual designs to a documented set of shop drawings. This phase represents the peak of participants' interactions including exploring and refining design solutions, explaining and reflecting on each other's ideas and concerns, and negotiating design and cost decisions. Collaboration is often presented in the literature as practices that provide the platform for successful interaction and the achieved outcomes, but with minimal concern about actual interactive processes. Theoretically, collaboration has been studied from a variety of perspectives grouped into normative and practice-based approaches that have enhanced the research field at the inter-organisational macro-level, but there is no consensus on a framework to measure collaboration empirically in the field. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the common themes describing interdisciplinary collaboration in the literature and develop a framework explaining the conceptual relationship between them. The proposed framework provides a preliminary step towards understanding the dynamic nature and stages of the interdisciplinary collaboration in the detailed design phase.

Collaboration in the Detailed Design Phase of Construction Projects – a Study of Interdisciplinary Teams

“…Collaboration traits of interdisciplinary teams can be categorised into antecedents, interactive processes and outcomes (Salam, Forsythe & Killen 2019). These traits are 1) antecedents such as defining roles and responsibilities, having a common goal, co-locating the team in a common place, and a common means of sharing information, 2) interactive process traits including interactive coordination, collective decision making, and aligning cost interests, 3) outcomes traits include achieving value for the client, cost and time efficiencies, and trust in expertise.…”

Multidisciplinary Nature of the AEC Industry, and the Potential Distribution of AEC Firms

“…Healthy inter-organizational relationship plays a key factor in enhancing building projects, and collaboration among interdisciplinary project teams needs further studies to identify the structure of these teams, the framework of the relationship among them, and the optimal workflow frequency [5]. The AEC industry needs tighter collaboration; architects, engineers, interior designers, and constructors need to work together from the early phases of the project, early-stage collaboration assures optimal designs, materials, and system selections [6].…”

When We Develop Collaboration, What Exactly Do We Develop?

“…Research has pointed to various measures that need to be considered to develop collaborative relationships. Salam et al (2019) proposed that designers and contractors need to align their knowledge and views about the actual interactive processes to which they engage. In their paper, they emphasized a concern about the lack of knowledge about what participants did in the active collaboration process.…”