Characteristics of Design-Relevant Constructability Knowledge
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 123, Issue 3
Abstract
Constructability should be an important objective in all phases of a construction project, and designers play an important role in achieving superior constructability. Most projects, however, do not receive constructability input though prior research has demonstrated the benefits of such input. One reason for this lack of constructability input, we argue, is the lack of formal, explicit constructability knowledge bases that link constructability issues to design decisions and that can be made available on-line to interested parties. This paper describes research that compiled and formalized constructability knowledge related to reinforced concrete structures. To ensure appropriate and specific constructability input, we classified the knowledge by construction methods and structural elements. To make this specific knowledge available to designers at the right time during design development, we further divided it into the five groups: application heuristics, layout knowledge, dimensioning knowledge, detailing knowledge, and exogenous knowledge. This classification leads to conclusions regarding the ability to collect and formalize this knowledge, and to make it readily available to designers to improve project performance.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Anthony, W. R. (1985). “Concrete buildings—new formwork perspectives: analysis and design of high-rise concrete buildings.”Rep. Publication SP-97, American Concrete Institute (ACI), Detroit, Mich., 303–321.
2.
Barone, M. (1990). “Designer-fabricator interpreter: a step towards computer integrated construction,” MS thesis, Dept. of Civ. Engrg., Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, Pa.
3.
Boeke, E. H. Jr. (1990). “Design for constructability: a contractor's view.”Concrete Const. 35(2), 209–213.
4.
“Buildability: an assessment.” (1983). Rep. Publication No. 26, Const. Industry Res. and Assessment Assn., England.
5.
Collier, E., and Fischer, M. (1995). “Four-dimensional modeling in design and construction.”Tech. Rep., No. 101, Ctr. for Integrated Facility Engrg., Stanford, Calif.
6.
“Constructability: a primer.” (1986). Rep. Publication 3-1, Const. Industry Inst., Bureau of Engrg. Res., Univ. of Texas at Austin, Tex.
7.
“Constructability implementation guide.” (1993). Rep. Publication 34-1, Const. Industry Inst., Univ. of Texas at Austin, Tex.
8.
Dilger, W. H. (1990). “Practical shear reinforcement for concrete flat slabs.”Concrete Constr. 35(2), 223–225.
9.
“Economical concrete construction.” (1988). Engrg. Data Rep., No. 30, Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute (CRSI), Schaumburg, Il.
10.
Ferguson, I. (1989). Buildability in practice. Mitchell's Professional Library, London, England.
11.
Fischer, M. (1991). “Constructability improvement for the preliminary design of reinforced concrete structures,” PhD thesis, Dept. of Civ. Engrg., Stanford, Calif.
12.
Fischer, M. (1993a). “Linking CAD and expert systems for constructability reasoning.”Proc., 5th Int. Conf. on Computing in Civ. and Build. Engrg., L. Cohn, ed., ASCE, New York, N.Y., 1563–1570.
13.
Fischer, M. (1993b). “Automating constructability reasoning with a geometrical and topological project model.”Computing Sys. in Engrg., 4(2–3), 179–192.
14.
Fischer, M. A., Luiten, G. T., and Alami, F. (1995) “Representing project information and construction method knowledge for computer-aided construction management.”CIB Proc., 180, W78 Workshop on Modeling Buildings Through Their Lifecycle, Dept. of Civ. Engrg., Stanford for Comité International du Bâtiment (CIB), Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 404–414.
15.
Fling, R. S. (1987). Practical design of reinforced concrete. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, N.Y.
16.
“Formwork for economical cast-in-place concrete construction.” (n.d.). Concrete Formwork Dig.
17.
Gee, A. F.(1989). “Constructability of bridges—a construction engineer's view.”Concrete Int., 11(5), 48–52.
18.
Glavinich, T. E.(1995). “Improving constructability during design phase.”J. Arch. Engrg., ASCE, 1(2), 73–76.
19.
Gugel, J. G.(1994). “Model for constructability approach selection.”J. Const. Engrg. and Mgmt., ASCE, 120(3), 509–521.
20.
Hanlon, E. J., and Sanvido, V. E.(1995). “Constructability information classification scheme.”J. Constr. Engrg. and Mgmt., ASCE, 121(4), 337–345.
21.
Hanna, A. S., and Sanvido, V. E.(1990). “Interactive vertical formwork selection system.”Concrete Int., 12(4), 26–32.
22.
Lin, T. Y., and Stotesbury, S. D. (1981). Structural concepts for architects and engineers. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, N.Y.
23.
Luiten, G. T. (1995). “Computer aided design for construction in the building industry,” PhD thesis, Tech. Univ., Delft, The Netherlands.
24.
MEANS building construction cost data, 7th Ed. (1994). R. S. Means Co., Inc., Kingston, Mass.
25.
O'Connor, J. T., Rusch, S. E., and Schulz, M. J.(1987). “Constructability concepts for engineering and procurement.”J. Constr. Engrg. and Mgmt., ASCE, 113(2), 235–248.
26.
O'Connor, J. T., and Tucker, R. L.(1986). “Industrial project constructibility improvement.”J. Constr. Engrg. and Mgmt., ASCE, 112(1), 69–82.
27.
Olson, J. R., and Rueter, H. M.(1987). “Extracting expertise from experts: methods for knowledge acquisition.”Expert Sys., 4(3), 152–168.
28.
Peurifoy, R. L. (1976). Formwork for concrete structures. McGraw-Hill Inc., New York, N.Y.
29.
Radtke, M. W., and Russell, J. S.(193). “Project-level model process for implementing constructability.”J. Constr. Engrg. and Mgmt., ASCE, 119(4), 813–831.
30.
Russell, J. S., and Gugel, J. G.(1993). “Comparison of two corporate constructability programs.”J. Constr. Engrg. and Mgmt., ASCE, 119(4), 769–784.
31.
Russell, J. S., Gugel, J. G., and Radtke, M. W.(1994). “Comparative analysis of three constructability approaches.”J. Constr. Engrg. and Mgmt., ASCE, 120(1), 180–195.
32.
Salazar, G. F., and Brown, D. C. (1988). “The effects of construction knowledge on the automation of preliminary building design.”Proc., 5th Int. Symp. on Robotics in Constr., Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 599–608.
33.
Tatum, C. B.(1987). “Improving constructability during conceptual planning.”J. Constr. Engrg. and Mgmt., ASCE, 113(2), 191–207.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 123 • Issue 3 • September 1997
Pages: 253 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Sep 1, 1997
Published in print: Sep 1997
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.