Goldswain C, S J (2013) Key inputs into a designing for construction health, safety, and ergonomics model in South Africa. In: Smith, S D and Ahiaga-Dagbui, D D (eds.) Proceedings of 29th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2013, Reading, UK.
Abstract
Construction health, safety, and ergonomics is inadequately addressed by architectural designers during the design process and disturbing accident statistics prevail, despite evidence that construction hazards and associated risks can be mitigated through appropriate design. A review of relevant literature and a mix of quantitative and qualitative prior preliminary studies as part of a PhD (Construction Management) study provide a backdrop for this paper. A pilot study questionnaire comprising a quantitative and qualitative mix was developed and distributed to 73 architectural designers in the Border region of the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa who are registered with the SACAP in order to: establish the dynamics of a model; engender an appropriate framework for a model, and to identify a range of key inputs suited to the model framework. The salient findings based on response percentages and mean score, and a measure of central tendency: established that architectural designers would be encouraged to design for construction health, safety, and ergonomics if they had a technologically grounded, flexible model which promotes a buy-in situation without stifling architectural freedom to assist the design process; recognised the SACAP work stages as being extensively followed during the design process; found the NBR to be the most widely used construction documentation during the design process, and identified a range of key inputs suited to a proposed model framework. Further research is necessary and it is recommended that the structure of the NBR and the SACAP work stages be suitably integrated in order to form the framework for a proposed model as such a format would be readily understood by architectural designers, and that the proposed range of key inputs be integrated with the proposed model framework to create the proposed model.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | architectural designers |
| Index terms: | documentation, design process, architectural designer, South Africa, statistics, evidence, questionnaire, dynamics, ergonomics |
| Subjects: | Geography, professional development, occupational health and safety management, systems engineering, profession, data collection methods, evaluation and assessment methods, mathematical modelling, design methods |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Information Management, Health and Safety, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here