CONCLUSION
The research project is turned to examine the increasingly complexity of AEC firms with the aim to understand and depict how they are organizing and equipping themselves in order to meet environmental issues. The effort is to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Indeed, on one hand, we widely know how sustainability and environmental topics are tackled at theoretical level within the scientific community. But, on the other hand, we mostly unknown how green topics are faced in practice within design and construction firms. The challenge is thus to analyze current practice in order to orient and streamline the design process in line with environmental target and life cycle perspective.
To start dealing with the complexity of the matter, the state-of-the-art was developed exploring three main subjects: change management, environmental issues and AEC firms. Thereafter, since the subject in question requires a close investigation into design firms and their workability, ethnography was elected as working method, in compliance with the emerging tendency that consider it as part of the set of techniques used to understand the construction sector. In this way, the research project conducts interviews within AEC firms by means of two different models, in relation to the level of detail to be achieved according to the phase of the project. The first model (currently underway) concerns a questionnaire survey and starts gain insight on AEC perspective. It aims to provide an overview of the transformation process and to determine trends in environmental topics. It involves a large target audience, focusing on general design practice and using indirect means of communication, such as mail or telephone interviews, structured with open-ended questions. By contrast, the second model (actually on the agenda) focuses on real case studies and demands a personal involvement in specific AEC firms. It aims to map ex-post the projects’ design process and the connected information’s flow, stressing environmental issues and their role in decision-making. It involves punctual partnerships, focusing on specific environmental-friendly projects and using direct means of communication, such as face to face questions, not structured since they vary in relation to the firms’ practice.
Moreover, since the goal is to stress the life cycle perspective during the research project and the examination of AEC practice, a background activity has been developed and it is still ongoing with the aim to orient and streamline the design process in line with environmental targets and life cycle approach. To this end, a conceptual framework was proposed in order to match LCA with AEC practice and implement it according to the different phase of design process. The basic matrix of the framework is established, on one hand, by the different stages of LCA method and, on the other, by the different phase of the design process. The framework points out for each phase of the process: i) the information required to develop and LCA study; ii) the actors engaged to gather that type of information; and iii) the related tools and sources used to take data. It can also be reversed by explicating it in relation to the LCA stages and the related quantitative information required to perform the inventory phase. In this way, it allows to join the large amount of LCA information with the different phases of design process, setting out in addition the related actors involved and references used. The first key factor of the framework is that quantitative and thus environmental data are collected in relation to the phase of the design process. The second key factor is that they are gradually defined, specified and detailed in conjunction with the process, becoming even more accurate, reliable and corresponding to reality. The third key factor is that LCA information are gathered in every phase of the design process by different actors, empowering therefore designers, contractors and facility managers for the choices and operations taken in their own expertise area. All these factors are crucial to turn LCA into a real supporting tool within the decision-making process of AEC practice and to activate the type of mechanisms able to start the process of improvement and optimization of the construction sector in line with environmental targets and life cycle perspective.
To shift the suggested framework from the theoretical to the practical level, consistently with the trends currently underway in AEC practice, BIM is identified as the most suitable tool. Indeed, it is perfectly able to face the hard task proposed and thus to embrace the wide range of information required to develop an LCA study as well as the plurality of actors involved in the process. The integration of the framework within BIM allows to create a well-framed and organized set of data of the facility during the whole life cycle, with visible benefits to project management. In fact, by joining LCA approach and BIM environment, BIM turns out to be not only a shared platform of exchange among the different practitioners and stakeholders and as a life cycle information database of the facility, but also as a feasible supporting tool to reduce the environmental impacts of the AEC value chain and so of the whole construction sector. Of course, in this perspective, many barriers have yet to be overcome and solved.
After arguing the framework before from the theoretical/conceptual point of view and then from the practical/applicative point of view, the focus turns back to the initial subject of the research: AEC firms, with the aim to verify the feasibility of the suggested framework. For this purpose, the state-of-the-art was deepened pointing out the literature studies based on questionnaire surveys submitted to AEC firms in relation to the main topics in question: BIM, Green BIM, LCA. Hereafter, LCA tools now available on the market were identified and examined, even if their application in AEC practice and during the decision-making process is until now unknown. The attention was then focused on the research studies available in literature in relation to the following issues: the models and methods that allow the integration of LCA in BIM and the review of LCA studies to verify the completeness and the quality of the considered LCA information.
The identification and the examination of the AEC case studies will become the turning point of the research project, starting to answer the several issues still pending about design and construction practice. In this context, it is important to stress that during the entire work and especially in the case studies analysis, life cycle perspective is adopted in order to examine in depth, by means of the proposed framework, which aspects of the project life cycle are taken into account in practice and in which phase of the process. For this reason, during the selection of case studies priority is given to the projects considered environmentally-friendly and possibly equipped with LCA, to explore their role in the decision-making process. Otherwise, if the projects selection is based only on environmental performance, life cycle approach is anyway adopted during the examination and the mapping of the processes. Indeed, throughout the case studies, the effort is to validate the suggested framework, identifying where the quantitative information required to perform an LCA study can be gathered at the present state and which are the responsible actors. In addition, the collection of all data and information will be organized in a systematic way in order to be able to compare the different AEC practice, examining and proving the applicability of the framework in relation to the type of firms and projects.
Consistently with the trends currently underway, in the next future sustainability and environmental goals, on one side, and BIM and collaborative and shared working environment, on the other, will represent the driving factors of AEC firms. Challenge of the research project is thus to combine the two parts in order to establish the best course of action for the construction sector. To this end, a framework is developed, matching theoretical and practical level, to integrate life cycle approach within design process in a BIM-oriented environment. The proposed framework will be confirmed and validated through its application on the selected case studies and will be then disseminate in AEC practice to orient and streamline, as expected, the design process in line with environmental goals and life cycle perspectives.
Many are the stakeholders that might profit of the main research project’s outcomes: the mapping of AEC practice and the development of the framework. As first, the AEC firms directly involved in the study, because they have the chance to observe and examine in a critical way their workability and to optimize and streamline their design process. AEC firms in general, because they can be aware of some reference practice models, gathering some improvement strategies and actions. The construction industry, followed by all the companies that provide design service and tools, because looking over case studies analysis and the framework application they can discover points of weakness or strength, in order to develop new and innovative instruments, methods and services. Regulators and legislators, because throughout the overview of AEC firms they can be mindful of the impact that policies, regulations and standards have in practice in order to manage and adjust laws also with regards to environment. Clients and users, because they have the chance to become informed about current and future trends of practice environmental-oriented to strongly drive construction sector and sustainable buildings. The academic community, because becoming aware of AEC practice can understand how adjusting training needs, in order to provide future architects and engineers capable to reason and meet environmental issues in line with the life cycle perspective.
Note that this is not the full bibliography of the research project (the main references of the state-of-the-art are attached to the report), but just the list of the fundamental references used in the document.