Smailes, R L (2000) Building chan chan: The application of construction project management to the analysis of ancient architecture. PhD thesis, University of Florida, USA.
Abstract
This study demonstrates the relevance and establishes a methodology for the application of contemporary construction project management systems to ancient architecture for the testing of archaeological hypotheses concerning scale of construction, organization of labor, and complexity of social organization. By employing industry standard planning, estimating, and scheduling tools, the labor requirements and construction times are calculated for the case study of the monumental adobe architecture of Ciudadela Rivero, at the site of Chan Chan, Peru, built by the Chimu around AD 1400. While the case study specifically concerns the adobe construction of the north coast of Peru, the methods are portable to other ancient architecture in any geographic region. Included in this research is the study of ancient adobe construction methods, as well as the development of productivity rates, project estimates, construction schedules, and a 3-D computerized model of Ciudadela Rivero. The labor investment in ancient monumental structures is often an important factor in hypotheses concerning a society's size, organization, and complexity. Prior methods of quantifying labor expenditures were limited to simply designed structures with minimal numbers of tasks. Due to the lack of practical analytical methods, complex architecture was often described subjectively offering little quantitative value, resulting in inferences that could be misleading or wrong. This research extends the study of labor quantification to the analysis of large-scale complex architecture with this more detailed and disciplined process. The construction industry estimating standards demonstrated here provide archaeologists with a consistent, accurate, and objective means to calculate the labor investment in structures previously too complex to be proficiently analyzed. Additionally, this research goes beyond the static analysis offered by simply quantifying labor. The application of critical path method scheduling provides researchers the means to estimate the construction time of ancient architecture enabling archaeologists to study the data in dynamic terms and to simulate the effects of various construction and labor organization strategies in their cultural context.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Brown Jr., B H |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Peru; case study; complexity; critical path method; estimating; investment; productivity; quantification; scheduling; social organization; standards |
| Index terms: | productivity, case study, quantification, construction time, labour requirement, construction industry, testing, estimate, construction project management, construction method, strategy, Peru, scheduling, society, critical path method, estimating, complexity, social organization, methodology |
| Subjects: | measurement and scaling, project controls, systems engineering, industry analysis, management, project management theory and practice, social theory, financial and cost management, data collection methods, building construction, communities and social development, research methods, Geography, operations research, professional practice |
| Topics: | Stakeholder Management, Business Strategy, Cost Management, Research Practice, Time Control, Site Management, Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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