Summary: |
The industrialization of the building industry requires a profound understanding ofthe interactions between building parts, elements, spaces and systems. Theindustrialization also causes an increasing number of actors and suppliers to beinvolved in the building process. The problems concerning interactions are notlimited to technical issues. The organization of the process, as well asresponsibilities and liabilities of consultants, subcontractors and other actors of theprocess contribute to the growing implications that constitute the problem in itswhole. Neglecting the interaction problems could affect what has been called theBuilding Integrity problem, BI. The first part of the research has beenconcentrated to formulate the problem and the key questions to be answered. Aconceptual schema describing the BI problem tentatively has been outlined. Theschema includes some interesting classifying attributes, e.g. the functions of abuilding, building parts, spaces, actors and the causes of building defects. A socalled "defect model" has been chosen as a base for an IT Support System. Thesystem aims at supporting certain actors to detect BI problems in the buildingprocess. A prototype system is currently developed and is described. |