Facilitators and benefits of implementing lean premise design: A case of Hong Kong high-rise buildings

Abstract

Defective design, poor stakeholder participation, and a mismatch between design provisions and end-user requirements cause most building construction waste. However, lean building design promotes collaboration and reduces waste. This study examines the benefits and facilitating measures of applying the lean premise design (LPD) scheme in high-rise residential buildings (HRRBs) to promote sustainability and minimise waste. This study employed a mixed-method strategy integrating a comprehensive analysis of existing literature, research interviews, and a questionnaire survey. The study highlighted the critical phases of the LPD scheme to achieve its benefits in building design and construction before the empirical examination of its benefits and facilitating measures. LPD includes stakeholder training at project start-ups, project goal identification, user-oriented collaboration, communication platform establishment, BIM, and digital tool inclusion. The benefits of the LPD scheme are enormous, including construction waste reduction, improvement in overall sustainability, reduction in cost overrun, flexibility to sustainable building design, reduction in energy usage and reduction in time waste. LPD benefits can only be realised with a sufficient facilitating framework. This study identified a policy mandate to drive fundamental cultural shifts among stakeholders, government credit for LPD adoption in BEAM Plus, public education, and the development of a communication platform for stakeholders to improve end-user feedback in design and construction processes as critical facilitators. Recent research on the construction industry's benefits and sustainability strategies supports the study's findings. While the LPD scheme can achieve sustainable flexibility in Hong Kong's HRRBs, the need for government involvement and support will further increase its adoption.