Liability Factors and Conceptual Framework for Contracts to Manage Design for Digital Fabrication in Construction Projects

Abstract

The adoption of digital fabrication—fabrication based on digital design—in the early design phase in projects requires a thorough understanding of the liability factors to design the contract. This paper addresses this issue using a two-stage research approach. First, a case study research maps the process from digital design to digital fabrication in an existing project that adopted digital fabrication using the design-bid-build model. Second, a three-round Delphi survey of 14 stakeholders of that project identifies and ranks 163 liability factors under eight categories: actors, resources, conditions, attributes, processes, artifacts, values, and risks. The resources of management capability and building information modeling (BIM) expertise rank as the two most important liability factors. Building on these findings, the paper presents a conceptual framework for contract design and discusses how the existing project delivery models—design-bid-build, construction management, design-build, and integrated project delivery (IPD)—can consider the liability factors in contracts.