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Article
Publication date: 3 October 2016

Tadeo Baldiri Salcedo Rahola and Ad Straub

This paper aims to gain more in-depth knowledge in the tendering procedures and organisational typologies of consortia working with integrated contracts for social housing…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to gain more in-depth knowledge in the tendering procedures and organisational typologies of consortia working with integrated contracts for social housing renovation projects and especially in the inherent changes in the role of the architect and his or her relations with the client and consortium members.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 21 Dutch social housing renovation projects using an integrated contract with the involvement of an architect were identified in the period 2005-2013. The study is based on interviews with 13 from 21 architects working in these projects.

Findings

The findings indicate that in the majority of these projects, the architect is contracted by the main contractor rather than by the client, the social housing organisation. The new contractual relationship has no significant effect on the relationship of the architect with the social housing organisation and improves the relationship of the architect with the main contractor, consultants, advisors and other consortium members, such as specialist contractors. The architect switches from the role of designer to that of technical and aesthetic advisor, compared to traditional design-bid-build projects.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are based on the first experiences of architects working with integrated contracts for social housing renovation projects. Results may be different for other types of projects.

Practical implications

Architects involved in integrated contracts for housing renovation projects can foresee the implications for their daily work. The study provides useful insights for educational reform to prepare students and practising architects to make the most of the new situation.

Originality/value

The few studies into integrated contracts that refer to the role of the architect have flagged up changes in this role relative to the traditional design-bid-build approach. This study provides in-depth knowledge of the role of the architect in integrated contracts.

Details

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1726-0531

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 June 2015

Gertrud Tauber

This research aims to examine three housing projects implemented by local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and planned by local architects after the Indian Ocean tsunami of

Abstract

Purpose

This research aims to examine three housing projects implemented by local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and planned by local architects after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 in rural South India. The key to the acceptance of post-disaster houses lies in meeting the peoples’ wishes and needs, and in integrating local know-how into the course of the project process (a premise intensively discussed in theory). After the tsunami of 2004, many (NGOs) appointed architects, assuming that these professionals would be qualified to facilitate the implementation of people-oriented houses (and villages). However, the architectsroles vary significantly, which had, as will be shown here, a considerable impact on the degree of success of the project.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary data for this study were gathered through household questionnaires (110); informal interaction; participant-observation (work assignment: 2.5 years; field survey: 4 months); semi-structured interviews (NGO representatives, architects and engineers). Secondary literature was studied on post-disaster housing, building cultures and cultures of knowledge.

Findings

This study reveals that, in the course of rural post-disaster reconstruction, there is a crying need to appoint the “right” personnel having, first of all, the capacity to comply with the social dynamics at project level, and, second, being able to address those aspects critical for the realization of people-oriented housing. Architects can be a valuable resource for both the NGO and the villagers. However, this paper shows that key to this is, among other considerations, a thorough understanding of the rural (building) culture, its abilities and requirements, the strategic interplay of various roles and abilities during the course of an intricate building process and the design of appropriate roles for adequately-skilled architects.

Originality/value

To this date, the debate on the role of architects in the context of post-disaster housing has neglected to examine empirically the implications of appointing these professionals in rural post-disaster contexts. This paper addresses this imbalance and complements the existing corpus of work by examining the impact of different roles of architects on the degree of success of the project at village level.

Details

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-5908

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 2014

Madeleine Jane Swete Kelly and Glenda Amayo Caldwell

This paper investigates the role of the architect in post-disaster reconstruction and questions their ability to facilitate permanent building solutions. There is an…

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of the architect in post-disaster reconstruction and questions their ability to facilitate permanent building solutions. There is an ever-increasing population of refugees and internally displaced persons due to disasters and conflicts who have a basic need for shelter. To date, housing solutions for such people has tended to focus on short-term, temporary shelter solutions that have been largely unsuccessful. This increasing demand for shelter has led to an emerging group of architects skilled in post-disaster reconstruction. These architects acknowledge that shelter is critical to survival, but believe architects should focus on rebuilding in a manner that is quick, durable but permanent. They believe that an architect skilled in post-disaster reconstruction can produce solutions that meet the requirement of the emergency phase, through to semi-permanent and even permanent homes, without wasting time and money on interim shelters. Case Study Research was used to examine and evaluate the assistance provided by Emergency Architects Australia (EAA) to the Kei Gold community in the Solomon Islands after the 2007 earthquake and tsunami. The results indicate that an architect’s response to a disaster must go beyond providing temporary shelter; they must create permanent building solutions that respond to the site and the culture while servicing the needs of the community. The vernacular reconstruction methods implemented by EAA in Kei Gold Village have been successful in developing permanent housing solutions. Further research and development is required to gain a broader understanding of the role of the architect in disasters of varying scales and typologies.

Details

Open House International, vol. 39 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0168-2601

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 April 2021

Angeliki Paidakaki, Rani De Becker, Yana De Reu, Febe Viaene, Shareen Elnaschie and Pieter Van den Broeck

This paper explores social resilience through the lenses of migration. It specifically studies the role of community architects in building socially resilient refugee camps which…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper explores social resilience through the lenses of migration. It specifically studies the role of community architects in building socially resilient refugee camps which are human settlements characterized by a transient and heterogeneous community with unique vulnerabilities. These settlements are managed through exceptional governance arrangements between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic humanitarian organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirical evidences are drawn from the Office of Displaced Designers (ODD), a design-focused creative integration organization active on Lesvos island. During one-month ethnographic research with ODD, empirical data were harvested through an extensive review of project archive materials including transcripts and audio files of interviews with project participants and collaborators conducted by ODD, architectural drawings and teaching materials, photo and video archives and administrative documents. The ethnographic research was complemented with semi-structured interviews with the founding members and former volunteers and partners of ODD; key site visits to the Moria Hotspot and the surrounding Olive Groves; as well as a desk study on European Union (EU) policies and legislative papers and legal information regarding the asylum seeker application procedure in Europe and Greece.

Findings

Reflecting on the potential and limitations of community architects in building socially resilient refugee camps, the paper concludes that in order for community architects to make long lasting improvements they must think holistically and design flexible structural solutions for the entire camp, leverage existing expertise within communities and assist other organizations through administrative, financial and design consultancy support. Community architects are also expected to take active roles in forming pro-equity governance structures and steering pro-resilient humanitarian trajectories by acting as mediators, lobbying their partners, advocating for inclusive practices and social spaces and documenting their projects to build an evidence base across practices and contexts and to strengthen their voice as a collective of community architects.

Originality/value

The role of community architects in building socially resilient human settlements in post-disaster place-based recovery processes has been widely discussed in the disaster scholarship. These studies have primarily emphasized permanent and in situ reconstruction efforts in disaster-affected areas. What remains limitedly discussed is the resilience-building potential of community architects in extraterritorial temporary human settlements characterized by displacement and temporality such as in refugee camps. In light of these observations, the aim of this paper is to push the boundaries of knowledge on post-crisis recovery by re-approaching the notion of social resilience from a migratory perspective and revealing the potential and limitations of community architects in fostering socially resilient refugee camps in new (national) territories.

Details

Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2631-6862

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 July 2010

Alexander Styhre

Professional communities are capable of maintaining their social status and role in society on the basis of a blend of technical and formal expertise, know‐how, and an…

Abstract

Purpose

Professional communities are capable of maintaining their social status and role in society on the basis of a blend of technical and formal expertise, know‐how, and an understanding of the non‐professional's demands and expectations. In architectural work, professional expertise largely centres on the visual capacities of the architect, his or her ability to extract useful information and communicate objectives and ideas on the basis of visual artifacts. However, this professional vision must always be double in terms of alternating between professional and non‐professional ways of seeing. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was based on a case study of a Scandinavian firm of architects, Blue Architects (a pseudonym).

Findings

The findings suggest that practising architects are highly aware of the societal role of their profession and the fact that there are a number of routines and mechanisms instituted by the firm which help the architect, newcomers as well as the more seasoned members of that community, to bridge and combine these two elements of their professional vision.

Originality/value

The study suggests that professional vision is a key term when examining visually‐oriented professions. However, this capacity to “see as an architect” does need to be a kind of split vision; both seeing as and seeing beyond the visual artifact produced. The study thus contributes toward understanding visually‐oriented professions and their relationship with lay knowledge.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 17 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 November 2023

Gi̇zem Özer Özgür and Aslıhan Şenel

This study investigates the transformation of the architect's role as portrayed in written texts by analyzing discursive practices concerning architectural education in Turkey…

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates the transformation of the architect's role as portrayed in written texts by analyzing discursive practices concerning architectural education in Turkey between 1963 and 2000.

Design/methodology/approach

The research employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine selected texts published in the Mimarlık journal, representing the Chamber of Architects of Turkey. By embracing M. Bakhtin's “dialogism” approach, it aspires to foster new discussions on architectural education and establishes a “dialogical landscape” showcasing various voices and arguments. The research supplements its methodology by mapping the dialogical landscape, illustrating the relationality of discursive practices.

Findings

The paper contends that alterations in the missions, goals, and priorities of the architectural discipline significantly impact architectural education. Rather than focusing on individual perspectives, the creation of new dialogical platforms, emphasizing the interplay of diverse and conflicting viewpoints, offers more comprehensive pathways to guide the future of architectural education.

Originality/value

Debates and conflicts regarding the architect's role are central to architectural education. This article offers a novel perspective on the history of architectural education in Turkey by analyzing shifts in the definition and role of the architect as expressed in the Mimarlık journal. By integrating the principles of dialogism into the study of educational discourses and revealing the relationality between material-discursive practices, it aims to enrich the discourse and contribute value to critical studies on architectural education.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 52 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 October 2022

Audrey Mertens, Yaprak Hamarat and Catherine Elsen

This research focuses on the interactions between architects and end-users during the design process of housing projects, both experiencing challenges and friction points when…

Abstract

Purpose

This research focuses on the interactions between architects and end-users during the design process of housing projects, both experiencing challenges and friction points when meeting.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a systematic literature review (SLR), based on and adapted from Kitchenham and Charters' work (2007). The thematic analysis of N = 104 identified articles reveals 13 main themes and 30 subthemes specific to architects, end-users and the interactions of architects and end-users, and 3 main groups of other actors intervening in these dynamics. The authors organize the data by actors and the actors' social encounters, themes and subthemes. The authors focus on some aspects, given possible evolution of practices.

Findings

The authors question the role of architects and the ways both parties share respective knowledge. The authors also discuss the various scales of social encounters depicted through literature, from traditional discursive meetings to participatory practices, and raise the lack of convincing tools genuinely used in current housing architecture practices. Finally, the authors point out the need for further field research in order to practically bridge the gap between researchers and practitioners.

Originality/value

The authors present an overview of the most relevant papers, organized in a table and grouped by themes. This represents a major output of this SLR, and gives the concerned readers the opportunity to get a grasp on readers' sub/theme of interest.

Details

Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2631-6862

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 November 2023

Iddamalgoda Pathiranage Tharindu Sandaruwan, Jayasinghe Arachchige Bihara Janardana and Kesavan Manoharan

Construction professionals are the major contributors to developing a sustainable construction industry, whereas architects, engineers and quantity surveyors are the key…

Abstract

Purpose

Construction professionals are the major contributors to developing a sustainable construction industry, whereas architects, engineers and quantity surveyors are the key construction professionals who must play extraordinary roles in achieving better sustainable construction. Therefore, this study aims to identify the job attributes of key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing challenges associated with climate change.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted a mixed research approach. A literature review and preliminary semi-structured interviews were used to appraise the job roles of architects, engineers and quantity surveyors in addressing challenges associated with climate change. The data collected through the qualitative approach were used in an online questionnaire survey, and the findings were analysed using the relative index method.

Findings

The findings highlight that regardless of the knowledge of the professional category on green rating tools, carbon footprint, adaptation of renewable energies for the reduction of energy consumption, building information modelling-related applications and waste management concepts/practices are the foremost job attributes required for the key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing challenges associated with climate change.

Research limitations/implications

The results from this study provide a handful of guidance to construction industry professionals, national and international professional institutions, non-governmental organisations and other relevant authorities to address climate change within the built environment by identifying ways for improving the relevant key job attributes of construction industry professionals.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the job attributes of key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing the challenges associated with climate change.

Details

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-5908

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 September 2003

Maria Anne Skaates

At the beginning of the nineties, the Danish construction market was in the midst of a severe slump (Eurostat, 1995). At the same time, the German market was beginning to boom…

Abstract

At the beginning of the nineties, the Danish construction market was in the midst of a severe slump (Eurostat, 1995). At the same time, the German market was beginning to boom, due to the process of unifying the two German states (European Construction Research, 1995). Because of the poor home market circumstances, many Danish construction industry actors, including individual architects and architectural firms, attempted to find work in Germany (Halskov, 1995). However, the aspirations of most of these actors were dashed. By 1996, many of the largest Danish civil engineering and contracting firms had lost billions of Danish kroner, and a great number of small firms, typically architectural firms or subcontractors in the construction process, had also experienced severe losses, some of which had jeopardized the very existence of these firms (ibid.). This turn of events surprised both insiders in the Danish construction industry and the general Danish population as both groups believed that Denmark has high construction standards and that the most of the firms that had attempted operations in Germany were technically competent and had sound domestic business policies.

Details

Evaluating Marketing Actions and Outcomes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-046-3

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2011

Rizal Sebastian

This paper aims to present a general review of the practical implications of building information modelling (BIM) based on literature and case studies. It seeks to address the

13271

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a general review of the practical implications of building information modelling (BIM) based on literature and case studies. It seeks to address the necessity for applying BIM and re‐organising the processes and roles in hospital building projects. This type of project is complex due to complicated functional and technical requirements, decision making involving a large number of stakeholders, and long‐term development processes.

Design/methodology/approach

Through desk research and referring to the ongoing European research project InPro, the framework for integrated collaboration and the use of BIM are analysed. Through several real cases, the changing roles of clients, architects, and contractors through BIM application are investigated.

Findings

One of the main findings is the identification of the main factors for a successful collaboration using BIM, which can be recognised as “POWER”: product information sharing (P), organisational roles synergy (O), work processes coordination (W), environment for teamwork (E), and reference data consolidation (R). Furthermore, it is also found that the implementation of BIM in hospital building projects is still limited due to certain commercial and legal barriers, as well as the fact that integrated collaboration has not yet been embedded in the real estate strategies of healthcare institutions.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the actual discussion in science and practice on the changing roles and processes that are required to develop and operate sustainable buildings with the support of integrated ICT frameworks and tools. It presents the state‐ofthe‐art of European research projects and some of the first real cases of BIM application in hospital building projects.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

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