Exploring the potential of technological innovations for temporary structures: A survey study

Technology innovations, such as virtual design and construction (VDC) tools, light detection and ranging (lidar), global positioning system (GPS), and other vision-based or sensor-based systems, provide approaches that designers, builders, and other stakeholders can adopt to address, manage, and tackle design, planning, and site safety issues effectively during the design and construction phases. Nevertheless, the majority of technology applications have focused on permanent structures rather than temporary structures such as concrete formwork and scaffolding. Due to the temporary nature of temporary structures, stakeholders might easily underestimate their importance and pay less attention to their safety, quality, and performance. Therefore, the benefits received for temporary structures as a result of the development of advanced technologies have been limited. This paper aims to investigate, through a survey questionnaire, the current practices related to the level of attention given to temporary structures compared with that of permanent structures, and professionals' viewpoints of using construction innovations on temporary structures. Based on empirical evidence from professionals who have experience with either designing or constructing temporary structures, the findings reveal that the industry currently pays less attention to temporary structures, and more attention is anticipated to improve safety performance related to temporary structures. In general, design and construction professionals hold positive attitudes toward applying construction innovations on temporary structures to improve the design quality and structural health when they are in use.