No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Patterns of communication in the decision-making process of Design Team Architects are considered. Variations in the verbal content of Architect and other Design Team member interaction behaviour are analysed over the various stages of the design process. A pilot study building design and a main subject study building design are investigatted on a longditudinal basis. Fourteen other building designs are investigated on a cross sectional basis. The presented results represent a data collection period of approximately eighteen months. Design Team interaction is measured using content analysis. The measurement scales used are largely based upon existing methodologies, although some measurement scales are developed specifically for this research. Quantitative data analysis is by mainframe computer, using analysis programs which are developed specifically for this research. Additional qualitative substantiations are provided by extracts of supportive interview responses. The results show pronounced patterns of variation in the interaction content of Design Team members throughout the design process over a range of design types. The conclusions are of use to Design Team members since they illustrate the likely patterns of future interaction for the future stages of any design process. Potential areas of interaction conflict are presented, together with likely variations in Design Team member preoccupations as the design develops. Reference to the results allow the Designer to design in order to avoid likely design interaction problems associated with long term variations in Design Team interaction behaviour. Results indicate that the Architect becomes less assertive during the middle stages of the design, as does the influence of the initial brief. The Architect is consistently the most creative Design Team member, although cost considerations increasingly influence the decision-making process of the Architect, largely at the expense of aesthetic considerations. The professional Design Team members increasingly form a coalition against the Client Representative, to some extent as a defence against late stage disruptive cost reduction exercises, as construction factors increasingly influence interaction behaviour.

It is argued that a fundamental criterion which has received little consideration in the investigation of cost prediction is the impact of information upon accuracy. An information model is developed by drawing on the work of communication engineers, information scientists and psychologists. It is then demonstrated that information cannot be divorced from the knowledge of the receiver and as such it then becomes necessary to determine how knowledge is accumulated and how this then impacts upon the need and demand for information, the choice of relevant information, as well as how that information is utilised. The concept of relevance is considered from a logical and psychological perspective. On completion of this analysis the information model which links cost estimating with entropy, information and knowledge is completed. It is argued that the developed model is comprehensive and facilitates the progression of research in this field. The model is then used as a basis for the investigation of the relationship between information and expertise in estimating, choice of information for estimating, impact of information on estimating, perceptions of information quality and the perceptions of the importance of information facets and attributes to the estimating process.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.