Supplier-driven integrated design

In current building and construction (BC) practice, most design projects are initiated and driven by the client, with or without the help of architects, engineering consultants or advisers. This article discusses an alternative approach that suggests an integrated design and delivery of BC works that is based on assuming a more dominant role for the supplier in the design process, as well as assuming more decision-making responsibility for the client. This bottom-up approach greatly benefits from the system engineering and building information modelling at its core. In this set-up, the supplier has a building system consisting of standardized building elements and components. Responding to a design question, the supplier develops a design as a configuration of his building system objects. Potential benefits of this approach include possibilities for standardization, production automation and advanced simulation and performance forecasting. The living building concept provides the core of a theoretical framework for shaping this approach, taking into account that the life of a construction is dynamic and hence needs to be adaptable. This requires a new construction process with a dynamic coupling between the 'living construction' and the 'living world'.