Evolving The Idea: Designing teams for detailed design

Abstract

The detailed design phase is critical in maintaining the design concept whilst considering aesthetic ventures in light of time, cost, and buildability prior to implementation. During this phase, design components are connected, solutions are tested and methods of implementation finalised. Design becomes a truly interdisciplinary activity.

In addition, the challenge of sustainability requires built environment professionals to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries if effective solutions are to be realised. However, there is currently limited research on how the behaviour of teams affects subsequent products and outcomes. This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of this link.

An experiment was carried out using single discipline and multi-disciplinary teams with differing collective personality characteristics to test whether it is essential to have the right personalities in the design team as well as the correct disciplines. Observation of design workshops provided the necessary data for analysis of how these environments influenced design outcomes. An evolutionary analogy was applied to map and understand the way that ideas behave during each of the four design processes. The teams’ performances and design outcomes are then analysed to draw some tentative conclusions about how design teams may be formed and managed during the detailed design phase.