Interdisciplinary interaction during concept design

Decisions taken during the conceptual design phase of a project have fundamental and extensive effects on both cost and performance. There are growing demands on interdisciplinary design teams to generate better and more innovative solutions to problems of increasing complexity. To meet these demands, more efficient and effective design methods and processes are required. At present, there are no construction industry guidelines to assist focused interdisciplinary team interaction during the conceptual phase of design. This paper will describe current research work to study the conceptual design activity of interdisciplinary teams. It will describe two recent design workshops that were held to allow real-time design activity to be monitored and mapped, and a preliminary conceptual design framework to be tested. The findings of the workshop highlight the iterative nature of conceptual design activity and provide much needed insights into the ways in which interdisciplinary teams progress during the early phases of design.