Owner of RDF Consulting Services and consultant for Turner Construction, Renzo di Furia, is working with Associate Dean for Research Carrie Sturts Dossick in supporting student-industry collaboration. “Applied Research Consortium brings together an interdisciplinary group of built environment firms with faculty experts and graduate student researchers at the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments (CBE) to address the most vexing challenges that firms face today.” A case study in applied research is highlighted in the article. 3D modeling was…
Lab/Center: Applied Research Consortium
Performative By-Products: The Emergence of Waste Reuse Strategies at the Blue Lagoon
De Almeida, Catherine. (2019). Performative By-Products: The Emergence of Waste Reuse Strategies at the Blue Lagoon. Journal of Landscape Architecture, 13(3), 64-77.
Abstract
Materials and landscapes associated with waste are perceived as objectionable. By reactivating and embracing waste conditions as desirable opportunities for diverse programmes rooted in economy, ecology, and culture, designers can form hybrid assemblages on waste sites through the exchange of waste materials—a landscape lifecycles approach. This frame-work is applicable to not only design research, but also as a critical lens for evaluating the landscape performance of existing projects that engage with waste reuse. The Blue Lagoon in southwest Iceland materialized as a spa industry out of geothermal waste effluent from the adjacent Svartsengi Geothermal Power Station, reusing undesirable materials and transforming a waste landscape through diversified material recovery strategies. Featuring an industrial by-product turned economic generator, this case study reveals the opportunities for reusing geothermal ‘waste’ in these emergent landscape conditions, which hybridize economies with recreation, research, and ecology, and shift the conventional relationship with waste from passive to performative.
Keywords
Waste reuse; Blue Lagoon; material lifecycles; Iceland; landscape reclamation
Messy Talk in Virtual Teams: Achieving Knowledge Synthesis through Shared Visualizations
Dossick, Carrie Sturts; Anderson, Anne; Azari, Rahman; Iorio, Josh; Neff, Gina; Taylor, John E. (2015). Messy Talk in Virtual Teams: Achieving Knowledge Synthesis through Shared Visualizations. Journal Of Management In Engineering, 31(1).
Abstract
Engineering teams collaborating in virtual environments face many technical, social, and cultural challenges. In this paper we focus on distributed teams making joint unanticipated discoveries in virtual environments. We operationalize a definition of messy talk as a process in which teams mutually discover issues, critically engage in clarifying and finding solutions to the discovered issues, exchange their knowledge, and resolve the issue. Can globally distributed teams use messy talk via virtual communication technology? We analyzed the interactions of four distributed student teams collaborating on a complex design and planning project using building information models (BIMs) and the cyber-enabled global research infrastructure for design (CyberGRID), a virtual world specifically developed for collaborative work. Their interactions exhibited all four elements of messy talk, even though resolution was the least common. Virtual worlds support real-time joint problem solving by (1)providing affordances for talk mediated by shared visualizations, (2)supporting team perceptions of building information models that are mutable, and (3)allowing transformations of those models while people were together in real time. Our findings suggest that distributed team collaboration requires technologies that support messy talkand iterative trial and errorfor complex multidimensional problems. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Keywords
Buildings (structures); Data Visualisation; Design; Grid Computing; Groupware; Knowledge Management; Structural Engineering Computing; Team Working; Virtual Manufacturing; Virtual Reality; Virtual Teams; Knowledge Synthesis; Engineering Teams Collaboration; Virtual Environments; Technical Challenges; Social Challenges; Cultural Challenges; Distributed Teams Making; Messy Talk; Knowledge Exchange; Globally Distributed Teams; Virtual Communication Technology; Distributed Student Teams; Design And Planning Project; Building Information Models; Bim; Cyber-enabled Global Research Infrastructure; Cybergrid; Virtual World; Collaborative Work; Team Perceptions; Iterative Trial And Error; Complex Multidimensional Problems; Visual Representations; Construction; Technology; Implementation; Collaboration; Communication; Teamwork; Digital Techniques; Knowledge-based Systems
BIM Curriculum Design in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Education: A Systematic Review
Abdirad, Hamid; Dossick, Carrie S. (2016). BIM Curriculum Design in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Education: A Systematic Review. Journal Of Information Technology In Construction, 21, 250 – 271.
Abstract
In the past several years, Building Information Modeling (BIM) adoption has grown significantly in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. In response to this trend, the industry and academia realized that BIM education in university curricula is an important requirement for satisfying educational demands of the industry, and a notable body of research has reported strategies AEC programs implemented to incorporate BIM in their curricula. However, no study has comprehensively reviewed and synthesized the research on sfrategies adopted by educators. To bridge this gap in the literature, this paper presents a systematic review of research on BIM curriculum design in AEC education. The authors report on the trends of research on BIM curriculum design (e.g. methods, timelines, and contexts) as well as a synthesis of implemented pedagogical strategies with detailed discussions on their implications and effectiveness across different studies and contexts. These strategies address a variety of important pedagogical issues such as enrolment of students, optional or required BIM use, important competencies and skills, tutoring methods, industry engagement, designing assignments, and assessment methods and criteria. This synthesis shows that designing pedagogical sfrategies for BIM education is complex and challenging, and AEC programs need to make trade-offs between advantages and disadvantages associated with these strategies. The results also highlight the need for more diverse research designs and settings to bridge the gaps identified in BIM curriculum research to date. Finally, the authors present a literature-based framework of BIM curriculum design sfrategies as well as a set of recommendations that can be used BIM educators and researchers as a guide for designing or assessing their BIM curricula in future research.
Keywords
Bridges; Curricula; Economic And Social Effects; Education; Information Theory; Personnel Training; Reviews; Students; Architecture; Engineering; And Constructions; Building Information Model; Bim; Curriculum Designs; Pedagogical Issues; Pedagogical Strategies; Research Designs; Systematic Review; University Curricula; Industry; Management; Building Information Modeling; Training; Curriculum; Review
The Impact of Avatars, Social Norms and Copresence on the Collaboration Effectiveness of AEC Virtual Teams
Anderson, Anne; Dossick, Carrie Sturts; Iorio, Josh; Taylor, John E. (2017). The Impact of Avatars, Social Norms and Copresence on the Collaboration Effectiveness of AEC Virtual Teams. Journal Of Information Technology In Construction, 22, 287 – 304.
Abstract
A growing number of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms are outsourcing complex design and construction work to international vendors. Due to the significant geographic distances that can separate project team members in global design networks, much of this work is executed in virtual teams, defined as teams composed of geographically separated members who collaborate to accomplish organizational tasks mediated by technology. The challenges of working in geographically distributed networks have prompted the development of alternative, virtual workspaces. Questions remain on how these virtual workspaces support or hinder collaborative work. People are social beings that rely on body language and other non-verbal cues to communicate. What happens to team formation and collaborative effectiveness when non-verbal cues are mediated through avatar actions? In this paper, qualitative ethnographic data collected over four years from studies conducted in a 3D virtual world are used to examine collaboration effectiveness of global virtual engineering project teams. We found that avatar movement and position was effective at communicating nonverbal information, even when done so unintentionally. Avatar actions that map to established social norms in the physical world results in more efficient communication. Collaboration was also enhanced when gesture bubbles were used for backchannel communication and when text chat was used to avoid interrupting voice communication. We found collaboration was hindered when the learning curve was too steep for participants to adapt to tool use or avatar actions in the environment. These findings have important implications for the future of collaboration in virtual environments, particularly in the AEC industry where 3D models can be imported into the virtual environment and explored synchronously by a project team.
Keywords
Architectural Design; Human Resource Management; International Trade; Bim Coordination; Collaboration Technology; Distributed Teams; Social Norm; Virtual Worlds; Communication; Design; Technology; Dimensions; Teamwork; Behavior; Collaboration Technologies; Social Norms
Cybergrid: A Virtual Workspace for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction
Taylor, John E.; Alin, Pauli; Anderson, Anne; Çomu, Semra; Dossick, Carrie Sturts; Hartmann, Timo; Iorio, Josh; Mahalingam, Ashwin; Mohammadi, Neda. (2018). Cybergrid: A Virtual Workspace for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction. Transforming Engineering Education: Innovative, Computer-mediated Learning Technologies, 291-321.
Abstract
Projects in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry frequently involve a large number of firms that increasingly span national boundaries. National boundary spanning by AEC firms engaged in complex, interdependent work introduces coordination challenges because stakeholders may not share the same language, culture or work practices. These types of firms have begun to explore the use of technologies that can meaningfully create productive work connections between the distributed participants 47 and help improve work coordination and execution. In this chapter, we describe the CyberGRID (Cyber-enabled Global Research Infrastructure for Design); a virtual workspace designed to support geographically distributed AEC work coordination and execution. The CyberGRID was created as a research tool to both enable and study virtual AEC teamwork. We summarize findings from multiple experiments over the jive year history of CyberGRID research and development. These findings help to improve our understanding of interactional dynamics among virtual teams in complex sociotechnical systems like the CyberGRID. We then discuss the challenges faced in developing the CyberGRID and in achieving widespread adoption of such tools in the industry. We close the chapter with a discussion of future research opportunities to develop improved sociotechnical systems to better support the execution of AEC projects. Our goal with this chapter is to argue that sociotechnical systems like the CyberGRID can fundamentally and positively transform the interactional dynamics of AEC project stakeholders to create more efficient global virtual work practices.
Keywords
Civil Engineering Computing; Construction Industry; Data Visualisation; Groupware; Project Management; Team Working; Virtual Reality; Cybergrid; Virtual Workspace; Construction; Engineering; National Boundaries; National Boundary Spanning; Aec Firms; Complex Work; Interdependent Work; Coordination Challenges; Culture; Productive Work Connections; Chapter; Global Research Infrastructure; Geographically Distributed Aec Work Coordination; Research Tool; Virtual Aec Teamwork; Virtual Teams; Complex Sociotechnical Systems; Future Research Opportunities; Improved Sociotechnical Systems; Aec Projects; Aec Project Stakeholders; Efficient Global Virtual Work Practices
Normative and Descriptive Models for COBie Implementation: Discrepancies and Limitations
Abdirad, Hamid; Dossick, Carrie S. (2019). Normative and Descriptive Models for COBie Implementation: Discrepancies and Limitations. Engineering, Construction And Architectural Management, 26(8), 1820 – 1836.
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to inquire into the reasons why Construction Operation Building Information Exchange (COBie) has not become mainstream across the construction industry despite the significant attempts to promote it. Design/methodology/approach This paper framed and compared the normative model of COBie to a descriptive model of COBie. The normative model was based on the assumptions and planned procedures outlined in the COBie documentation. The descriptive model was developed through a case study of COBie implementation, with ethnographic observations, interviews and artifact analysis as the data collection methods and thematic analysis as the data analysis method. Findings The comparative analysis of the normative and descriptive models showed that the underlying normative assumptions of COBie can be challenged in its implementation. In the case study, implementing COBie disrupted the conventional practice of few participating firms as the data requirements and the expected sequences and timelines of tasks were not aligned with the industry norms for exchanging data. Furthermore, the normative model of COBie could not account for the unanticipated variability in the internal routines of firms for submittal production. Practical implications - COBie, as an instruction-based model, may not provide enough flexibility for some firms to adapt to its requirements such that COBie tasks become integrated with their existing workflows. COBie tasks may become additional efforts, and at times, conflict with the industry norms and firms' routines, and therefore, disrupt the efficiency goals. Originality/value This paper provides empirical evidence to clarify why implementing COBie has not been as efficient for all industry players as expected.
Keywords
Construction Industry; Information Dissemination; Information Systems; Cobie; Hand Over; Information And Communication Technologies; Information Exchanges; Operations; Facilities Management; Bim; Construction; Case Study; Information Exchange; Information And Communication Technology (ict) Applications; Project Hand Over
Restructuration of Architectural Practice in Integrated Project Delivery (IPD): Two Case Studies
Abdirad, Hamid; Dossick, Carrie S. (2019). Restructuration of Architectural Practice in Integrated Project Delivery (IPD): Two Case Studies. Engineering, Construction And Architectural Management, 26(1), 104 – 117.
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to clarify that while integrated project delivery (IPD) methods can be momenta for restructuring architectural practice, they do not predetermine specific patterns of restructuration for the roles, responsibilities and services of architects. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a multiple case study design; two IPD projects were theoretically sampled and studied. The data collection methods included semi-structured interviews and observations. An inductive data analysis approach was applied to frame the phenomena, conduct cross-case comparisons and develop propositions. Findings While IPD implementations set expectations for new structures for practices, it is the project participants' situated decisions that lead to the restructuration of some dimensions of architectural practice. The dimensions in this study included team formation, design leadership and collaboration and architectural services. IPD project participants locally changed and redefined conventional roles, responsibilities and project artifacts (e.g. drawings and models) that concerned design development and coordination. Practical implications - IPD context, by itself, does not predetermine a fixed pattern of change in establishing designers' roles, responsibilities and services because restructuration is highly negotiated amongst the IPD parties and can lead to different responses to this contractual setting. Contracts set expectations for collaborative behavior, but the fulfillment of these expectations is situated and emerging as project participants negotiate to develop practices. Originality/value - While IPD research and guidelines aim to provide recipes for IPD implementation, this study contributes to the body of knowledge by clarifying that IPD is a context in which unprecedented ways of practice restructuration could emerge.
Keywords
Construction Industry; Contracts; Data Analysis; Human Resource Management; Innovation Management; Organisational Aspects; Project Management; Team Working; Architectural Practice; Case Studies; Integrated Project Delivery Methods; Specific Patterns; Responsibilities; Design/methodology; Multiple Case Study Design; Ipd Projects; Data Collection Methods; Observations; Inductive Data Analysis Approach; Cross-case Comparisons; Ipd Implementation; Practices; Design Leadership; Architectural Services; Ipd Project Participants; Conventional Roles; Project Artifacts; Concerned Design Development; Coordination; Practical Implications; Ipd Context; Designers; Ipd Parties; Different Responses; Practice Restructuration; Contractors; Ipd; Architecture; Integration; Design Management; Case Study; Integrated Project Delivery; Integrated Practice; Restructuration
Between Fixities and Flows: Navigating Place Attachments in an Increasingly Mobile World
Di Masso, Andres; Williams, Daniel R.; Raymond, Christopher M.; Buchecker, Matthias; Degenhardt, Barbara; Devine-Wright, Patrick; Hertzog, Alice; Lewicka, Maria; Manzo, Lynne; Shahrad, Azadeh; Stedman, Richard; Verbrugge, Laura; von Wirth, Timo. (2019). Between Fixities and Flows: Navigating Place Attachments in an Increasingly Mobile World. Journal Of Environmental Psychology, 61, 125 – 133.
Abstract
This paper develops a theoretical argument for how place attachments are forged and become dynamically linked to increasingly common mobility practices. First, we argue that mobilities, rather than negating the importance of place, shift our understanding of place and the habitual ways we relate to and bond with places as distinct from a conception of place attachment premised on fixity and stability. Second, we document how the body of research on place attachment has both reinforced and contested 'sedentaristic' assumptions criticized within the so-called 'mobilities turn' in the social sciences. Third, we present a conceptual framework, built around different modes of interrelation between fixity and flow, as a way to re-theorize, link and balance the various studies of place attachment that have grappled with mobility. Finally, we sketch out the main research implications of this framework for advancing our understanding of place attachment in a mobile world.
Keywords
Sense; Identity; Dimensions; Mobilities; Home; Cosmopolitan; Environment; Migration; Community; Benefits; Flow; Fixity; Place Attachment; Human Settlements; Psychology; Social Environment
Rebaselining Asset Data for Existing Facilities and Infrastructure
Abdirad, Hamid; Dossick, Carrie Sturts. (2020). Rebaselining Asset Data for Existing Facilities and Infrastructure. Journal Of Computing In Civil Engineering, 34(1).
Abstract
This paper introduces rebaselining as a workflow for collecting reliable and verifiable asset management data for existing facilities and infrastructure. Reporting on two action research case studies with two public owners in the US, this research structures rebaselining in four phases: (1) preparing technology enablers, (2) collecting data from existing documents, (3) conducting field verification, and (4) updating asset management databases. These workflows address some of the common challenges in managing existing assets, including the fast-paced changes in asset data requirements, the inaccuracies in data and documentation of these existing assets portfolios, and the need to update data and documents over their life cycle. The findings set the groundwork for implementing workflow by mapping the rebaselining business processes in each phase, listing the technological requirements for these processes, and explaining the feasibility and examples of customizing building information modeling (BIM) platforms for rebaselining workflows. This customization of BIM platforms aims to offer simplified solutions that reduce the facility management staff's need for advanced BIM software knowledge.
Keywords
Asset Management; Building Management Systems; Business Data Processing; Database Management Systems; Facilities Management; Production Engineering Computing; Project Management; Risk Analysis; Software Tools; Reliable Asset Management Data; Verifiable Asset Management Data; Action Research Case Studies; Public Owners; Research Structures; Technology Enablers; Asset Management Databases; Facility Management Staff; Rebaselining Workflows; Technological Requirements; Rebaselining Business Processes; Existing Assets Portfolios; Documentation; Asset Data Requirements; Managing Existing Assets; Information; Bim; Existing Buildings; Infrastructure; Asset Data; Rebaselining