Redefining Design in Construction

Several theoretical framings have been proposed regarding the nature and process of designing but these mainly see design as a creative activity. However, designing in construction is a collective undertaking that involves not only 'creating' discipline-specific parts of the design but also 'organising' them to ensure consistency and coherence. Nevertheless, organising design in construction is under-theorised, and there are no clear explanations of what constitutes design collaboration and how it is different from designing. These gaps imply not only a shortcoming for managing design in construction, but also a difficulty for developing technology that effectively supports it. Therefore, this paper adopts a practice-focused approach to explore the interdisciplinary design interactions in a project from an organisational point of view. This develops further insight into the natures and processes of designing and design collaboration in construction, thus informing the management of design. When seen from a practice-based perspective, multidisciplinary design development becomes an ongoing process of reestablishing 'a shared sense of purposefulness' that enables both autonomy of, and consistency between, different design disciplines. This provides an explanation of the interdependency between specialist knowledge and interdisciplinary interactions. Thus, the paper develops definitions of design and design collaboration in construction that are centred on 'organisation' rather than 'creativity'. Implications for technology development and management are outlined.