Abstract
The history of building engineering goes back several millennia when engineers were also the architect, project manager and master builder. Historically, building engineering has been seen as a combination of craft skills, rules of thumb and the application of science.This traditional link between design and craft skills continued into the 20th century. At this time, building design offices had staff from diverse backgrounds including those that had progressed through the trades, graduates of polytechnics and university graduates.Anecdotal evidence has indicated that in the last couple of decades, a number of change shave occurred that have impacted upon building design offices; the increased academic requirement of a Master's degree to become a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE), the relaxation of site experience required by engineering designers and the transformation of polytechnics to universities and the widespread adoption of digital technologies. This work assesses the extent and impact of these changes pertaining to how the loss of craft knowledge and site experience is impacting design engineers' ability to identify and mitigate hazards in designs and how digital technologies is impacting the training and development of engineers.
Adopting a qualitative methodology, seven semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a purposeful sample of practicing engineers who have witnessed the changes to the industry. A bespoke hazard perception test was also developed to assess the impact of site experience on a designers' ability to identify hazards in designs. The test was carried out on 12 practicing engineers and 47 final year civil engineering students.
The experiential evidence from the interviews indicates that inexperienced engineers have become over-reliant on digital technologies at the expense of understanding the engineering principles of the design. The change to the routes to chartered engineers status is resulting in a loss of diversity of experiences of staff. Additionally, the hazard perception tests provide empirical evidence that having site experience increases the ability to identify and mitigate construction hazards in designs which has never been shown before.
In response to the results of the interviews and hazard perception tests a framework of an educational, training and development tool is presented which utilises some of the attributes of BIM technologies. The framework illustrates how potential hazards are highlighted. Using links to multimedia technologies, videos, animations, vignettes and interviews illustrate the possible cause of the hazard and suggest alternative forms of construction to mitigate the hazard. The framework provides knowledge of site operations to the designer, that would have previously been gained through site experience, allowing them to make well-reasoned and sound decisions pertaining to the development of the design.
| Date of Award | 2016 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
|
| Supervisor | Bimal Kumar (Supervisor) & Billy Hare (Supervisor) |