Critical factors influencing the choice of frame type at early design

Abstract : The design process, as defined by Pahl and Beitz (1988), is the intellectual attempt to meet certain demands in the best possible way. Early design phase is a critical part of a building project and decisions made through this phase lay the foundations for the construction phase. These involve the evaluation of alternative frame types fulfilling key constraints in order to come up with the optimum structural solution. Although the choice of frame is heavily influenced by the factors specific to that project, there are a number of issues that are commonly considered by project participants. These issues were addressed by means of literature review, semi-structured interviews and a workshop, to identify the most important factors in influencing structural frame selection. This paper reports on research which analysed postal questionnaires sent to cost consultants, project managers, and clients and established a ranking of ten issues for each stage of early design. The data collected were tested, using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) through frequency and Spearman‘s rho (¤ü) analyses. Ten issues proved to be significant to the structural frame selection process; the statistical tests have established the agreement between cost consultants, clients and project managers in the rankings of these issues. Therefore, the paper concludes that these issues could be adopted as fundamental criteria for assessing and selecting the structural frame type for a building project during the early design phase.