Abstract :
Incomplete knowledge flow between architects and mechanical/electrical
engineers engenders large expense and untimely delivery of building
projects. It is essential to consider mechanical/electrical requirements from
the early stages of design; and many experienced architects acknowledge this
knowledge entities and the necessity for considering them at the right time.
Therefore, inefficient knowledge flow among professionals during
architectural conceptual design is emphasized as a problem for this study.
For overcoming this problem, the study intends to improve knowledge
capture during conceptual design phase of building projects by formalizing
the fundamental requirements of necessary mechanical/electrical knowledge
during this phase. To achieve this goal, this research develop three objectives:
1) Specify an appropriate knowledge capture technique for tacit dominated
conceptual design phase; 2) Identify fundamental mechanical/electrical requirements to consider by architects during conceptual design phase; and
3) Develop a framework for formalizing tacit mechanical/electrical
knowledge during conceptual design phase. Firstly, the study selects an
appropriate technique to capture expert?s tacit knowledge based on a
literature survey by matching existing knowledge capture techniques with
conceptual design characteristics. Secondly, mechanical/electrical knowledge
is obtained through a case study during conceptual design of a green
building project. The mechanical/electrical knowledge and activities are
matched in the McMillan Framework (2001) for the conceptual design phase.
Later, mechanical/electrical knowledge is matched and assigned to the
architectural concept design activities. At the conclusion of the exercise, the
study developed a mechanical/electrical knowledge-based framework for the
conceptual design phase. Validation of the results was obtained by using
computational organizational theory simulation. This study contributes in
extending McMillan?s Framework to include explicit fundamental required
mechanical/electrical knowledge during the conceptual design phase;
developing a tacit knowledge capture technique by combining tacit
observation and explicit repertory grid documentation; and improving
Nissen?s (2006) multidimensional model (MDM) by integrating knowledge
into Macmillan?s framework for conceptual design activities. These results
support the need to mitigate potential knowledge losses in tacit-dominant
area between experts during conceptual design phase of building projects.