“rubber band” - a practical support tool for integrated and resource-efficient early design in construction

Abstract

The planning and construction sector is one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters and has shown the lowest increase in productivity among economic sectors over the last century. Increasing complexity and performance requirements in building projects require the collaboration of ever more interdisciplinary project teams, but conventional planning tools often do not facilitate a tangible knowledge exchange between project stakeholders from different fields of expertise. This is most notable in early project phases when fundamental design decisions are made. To address this challenge, we introduce a flexible and expandable digital workflow using a single 3D-model to integrate and moderate expertise from multiple project stakeholders such as architects, structural engineers, energy planners, contractors, and future users. This workflow creates a “rubber band” between different interdependent design goals and constraints, offering an opportunity to negotiate and optimize design parameters early-on. The framework is an addition to conventional planning tools whose complexity and costs often prevent stakeholders in the building industry from embracing the potentials of the digital transformation.