Integrated Project Design

Construction projects are increasingly complex endeavours. New building systems, components and materials are available, while market and legal requirements have evolved, requiring interdisciplinary teams throughout the construction lifecycle. In the design process, Architects and Engineers must work together from the beginning of the process to sustain each other decisions, responding to various project assets, the Integrated Project Design (IPD). Post-graduate education in both areas must give students tools to capacitate them to work in interdisciplinary teams. Adequate methods, tools, and languages must be learned at the Higher Education level to capacitate them in professional life to support the inevitable interactions between the two complementary disciplines and to answer to the real needs of the Construction Industry (CI) stakeholders. This paper presents an example of implementing Integrated Project Design methodology in a project-based learning approach to a three-year Master's in Integrated Building Design and Construction (MPRINCE) in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. An overall description of the degree and case studies are presented, where students with different academic backgrounds worked collaboratively on real projects with the participation of companies and other stakeholders. The best proposals are implemented within the thesis research at the end of each academic year.

The disruptive potential of both decarbonization and digitalization to professional practice underscores the significant challenges ahead in educating future practitioners in the design, planning, and construction sectors. This chapter outlines the impacts of these interlinking trends on European higher education institutions, summarizes effective pedagogical approaches and competences identified in the literature, and follows by introducing an example of a Swiss response—the specialized Master in Integrated Building Systems (ETH MSc IBS or MIBS). Developed to meet changing demands in the workforce, this interdisciplinary program was initiated in 2013 by ETH Zurich in collaboration with the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA). A brief history of the program and overview of the curriculum are provided, followed by a detailed example of project-based teaching within the study program—the Integrated Design Project (IDP). Detailed course design and examples of student work are presented. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the outlook of program and curriculum development within the context of these broader trends.

This text outlines some considerations on the use of drawing and its diverse capabilities as a tool for thinking, in the context of a university education. We present a case study from the University of Porto, focusing particularly on the study of engineering and its direct involvement with drawing issues. We discuss the concept of drawing and the respective mechanisms of divergence and convergence that are enmeshed in the methodologies used in projectual processes and in which drawing is an instrument of conception and mediation, a tool, and a means of graphic communication. We analyse the importance of the use of digital technologies in the processes of construction/representation of drawing images, assess their impact on teaching methods, and insist on the teaching of drawing as formative discipline. We outline the development of drawing from an artistic activity to a synthetic knowledge organizing tool that brought us to the functional separation between artistic and technical drawing, to understand its capabilities as a teaching tool in the classroom both as a creative and as a synthetic instrument.

As society (never-ending) progress advances, the search for a growing optimization of the whole building project lifespan (design, construction, and maintenance) has, somehow, been placing digitally-driven technologies evolution as prime-keystone actors in design and construction fields. However, if the advantages that these (always evolving) developments, machineries and softwares bring to building research-practice remain indisputable—namely regarding production, coordination and communication processes –, the (often widespread) notion that these new tools and procedures constitute, “per se”, the core-driving elements in fostering a well-designed project, (still) seems fairly questionable. Based on these indications, this article focuses on the mid-twentieth century British architects Alison and Peter Smithson, to discuss a different perspective: in short, shouldn’t the quest for an optimized ‘integrated design’ rely, firstly, mostly and inevitably, on the designers’ correct conception-approach? Long before the (currently trendy) ‘Industry 4.0’, this article argues that, in establishing the right fundamental principles from the very first level of the design-process (such as building rationalization, or sustainable concerns, among others), the Smithsons may be regarded as a past-historical model of tackling the ‘integrated’ philosophy in the proper way—it is the designers accurate purpose-intentions which (first) model appropriate ‘integrated’ methodologies and instruments, and not the other way around. By driving attention to their thinking-practice, and critically surveying their archives, two of their most renowned works (the Economist, and Robin Hood Gardens) are (predominantly) addressed, essaying that their “project-theory” may constitute a true cornerstone disciplinary source for a correct ‘integrated project design’ approach, which is still valuable today.

In recent years, researchers have focused on improving the design of building envelopes to enhance their environmental performance using kinetic systems, such as kinetic shading screens. Research has shown that these systems can effectively control and improve daylight illuminance in a room (Fiorito et al. in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 55:863–884, 2016). However, finding their best configuration for given conditions is challenging because it depends on a variety of factors such as room size, orientation, and use, as well as the design parameters of the screen itself. This chapter describes research that compares two different approaches to the problem considering daylight performance and design variety. Focusing on a case study, it uses a simulation model to calculate the performance of configurations on four days of the year—equinoxes and solstices. The first approach is to create a catalog through brute-force enumeration from a limited space of possible design configurations and then select the best for every hour of the day. The second approach is to consider a larger design space, but sample possibilities using a smaller set of master variables that algorithmically control the states of multiple flaps. The performances of configurations identified by both approaches are compared, and then the benefits and challenges of each are discussed. The study concludes that the second approach (algorithmic sampling) can search a wider and more diverse space of solutions and find configurations with better performance. In addition, although it takes more time, it is more efficient, considering the size space being browsed.

The construction industry has never faced more challenges with, at the same time, a constant decrease in productivity for decades, an increase in raw materials prices and energy, and the explicit consideration to be responsible for the most significant emanation part of greenhouse gas, involving a dramatic global growth of the planet's temperature. Rapid solutions should be implemented to solve this complex equation. The net-zero targets of 2050 required a drastic reduction of carbon emissions and, at the same time, a decrease in global materials consumption by a factor of two. With 40% of the worldwide greenhouse gas emission divided into two main parts: the grey energy generated by the large volume of materials used and the direct energy required for the operation of the building, construction would be the faster way to decrease our carbon footprint significantly. Energy efficiency improvement of the buildings, as well as the reduction of the materials required, is necessary to reduce the carbon bill. The Integrated Project Design is needed to handle the innovations’ complexity and reduce cost and execution time. This chapter demonstrates how a net-zero house requires fewer resources during the construction and service and can be more economical with the combination of Integrated Project Design and innovative solutions.

Nowadays, product or building performance requirements impose increased responsibilities on the design project teams. The design must be more detailed in its various fields, and more knowledge is demanded on each discipline involved. Therefore, the project can no longer be the result of a sum of the multiple contributions but is collaboratively developed following an Integrated Project Design (IPD) approach. However, ensuring coordination among the various actors in the different project stages is the most significant difficulty, not only among the project design team members (architects, designers, and engineers) but also between project areas (project design team, manufacturing, marketing, etc.). Thus, defining the project parameters together and working simultaneously is essential to achieve the expected performance. In this chapter, a literature review on design methodologies in architecture, engineering design, and industrial/product design is done to understand how the various design methodologies developed can support this new paradigm. It is possible to verify a general consensus on the most common stages in the design process. Crossing these stages with the disciplinary fields of the project’s interface (marketing/sales, project team, manufacturing and project management, quality, purchasing, legal and financial), a support framework is developed for the integrated development of design projects. In this framework, for each stage of the development process, the objective, the outcome, the key activities to be carried out, and the responsibilities of the organization’s different functions are indicated.