Methods of coordination in managing the design process of refurbishment projects

Abstract

Building refurbishment is an important sector in the Malaysian construction industry, and has become an important economic driver. High demand for refurbishment projects mainly contributed by an increase in the number of building renovation, alteration, extension and extensive repair works. However, refurbishment projects are more difficult to manage because of uncertainty factors inherent in the projects. The uncertainty of refurbishment projects is reflected in the difficulty of obtaining design information during the design process. As a result, most refurbishment projects end up with high amounts of design changes during the construction stage. The performance of refurbishment design, however, could be improved by increasing the use of coordination methods among the key design participants in the projects. Therefore, this paper identifies effective coordination methods that could be used in managing the refurbishment design process. The data were obtained from a literature review, semi-structured interviews with 21 architects and a questionnaire survey, which involved 234 respondents. The analysis of the results concludes that methods of coordination were used extensively by architects in obtaining design information with scheduled meetings, and that direct formal contacts were more predominant. © 2009 Palgrave Macmillan.