Taking care of caretaking

It has been put forward in recent years that facilities management considerations should be better integrated into planning, design and construction of new buildings. It is difficult to disagree with the idea that it would good to establish a feedback mechanism from buildings in use to the production of new buildings, but is it possible? And are there obstacles? This paper will through examples from construction management literature and some cases outline issues related to this integration of facilities management. It is the intention to improve the understanding of the complexities in the integration of FM considerations by linking to a more general debate in construction management. It is demonstrated that it is not as easy as it may seem to create such a learning loop. There is an important and seemingly neglected link to the discussion on fragmentation of the construction industry. A feedback mechanism cannot simply be engineered into construction. A demand from up front in the construction process for knowledge about existing buildings will be needed, as well as mechanisms for passing on the knowledge through the construction process.