…In order to get the richest quality of Biophilic Urbanism and high quality buildings, assure that the construction process is be able to evolve and respond to context as it proceeds.
__Problem-statement: There is an important quality in buildings that respond to the evolutionary opportunities of their context during construction. Yet a design-build approach can introduce uncertainty, complexity and cost into the construction process.__
Discussion: Some of the most beautiful and successful buildings in the world have been produced from a design-build process. The great medieval cathedrals are a case in point: often construction commenced with little more than a floorplan and an elevation of a single bay, drawn with ink on plaster. Many hundreds of shop drawings, models and mockups followed, and the beautiful results emerged out of that careful evolutionary process.
At the same time, design-build approaches can be expensive if they are not managed well. The critical issue is the governance of changes, in such a way that any change does not introduce additional cost and/or time, over what has been planned. This can be done if managed carefully.¹
We are beginning to realize that there is a relationship between our most successful constructions — as measured by user health and satisfaction — and the processes of biology. In these biological systems, we learn a profound lesson from their process of growth with adaptation, where every step in development checks against the latent coherence of the emerging whole. In a “linear” or mechanistic process, by contrast, a structure is built strictly according to a blueprint. This makes it impossible to adjust a design by using feedback while it is being carried out. The result is that we lose a powerful capacity for adapting much more closely to human sensibilities. Yet as we can see from historical examples, this method has led to exquisite results. The challenge now is to make the extra effort to implement a procedure with greater feedback in shaping a better-quality built environment.
__Therefore: Incorporate a design-build methodology into construction processes. Use an interactive collaboration between designers, builders and craftspeople, looking on site for emergent opportunities and combinations.__
Use Community Mockup to judge the results of design changes in their actual contexts. …
notes
¹ There is a great deal of literature on the design-build process — see for example Chan, A. P., Scott, D., & Lam, E. W. (2002). Framework of success criteria for design/build projects. Journal of Management in Engineering, 18(3), 120-128.
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