The Role of Public Agencies in Fostering New Technology and Innovation in Building (1992) / Chapter Skim
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3. New Tecnnology and Innovation in the U.S. Building-Related Industries
3. New Tecnnology and Innovation in the U.S. Building-Related Industries
Pages 31-46
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From page 31... ...
If these industries are as laggard and resistant to change as some observers have asserted, then efforts to foster new domestic building technology may be unlikely to yield benefits in proportion to Heir costs. The committee believes that evidence shows otherwise, that investment in the search for new building technology is warranted, and that this search will motivate positive industrial response and broader benefits.
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From page 32... ...
. Digital controls for heating and cooling systems, power hand tools using lightweight batteries, computer-aided design systems that allow designers and builders to simulate construction of large buildings, roller-compacted concrete, advanced structural design methods, and drywall mounting adhesives are a few recent innovations (see Appendix E)
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From page 33... ...
The committee depended primarily on its lcoowledge of these industries and analyses of innovation in other fields to judge whether the building industries are unique and underachieving in their pursuit of new technology and rates of innovation.
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From page 34... ...
The director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's notorious Operation Brealdhrough program cited the construction industry's structure and general unwillingness to pelt research outside of that structure as factors in the failure of federal R&D to achieve substantial payoffs (Finger, 1969~. Studies of innovation in He building industries have, for the most part, been narrowly focused on individual segments of the market (e.g., housing)
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From page 35... ...
reap benefits in new technologies produced as spinoffs of this larger investment. Most studies of the industry as a whole in the past two decades have been concerned with the decline in productivity observed in macroeconomic statistics, a decline that some people have attributed to failure to maintain a steady rate of innovation.22 However, little evidence from the construction industry itself is offered to support this attribution, and microeconomic studies have tended to highlight management issues as a proxy source of lost productivity on the job site (e.g., Leonard et al., 1988; Smith, 1987; St.
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From page 36... ...
The committee considered more circumstantial arguments. ENTRY POINTS FOR BUILDING INNOVATION The opportunities for adoption of new building technology (i.e., innovation in planning, design, construction, managements or maintenance of facilities)
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Compared to the construction industry in other countries, the spending is low as well. Estimates assembled in 1983 by the Conseil International du Batiment pour la Recherche l' etude et la Documentation showed the U.S.
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From page 38... ...
A 1990 evaluation of Japan's construction industry, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, found that aggressive and highly productive research spending by industry and government have placed that nation at the forefront of construction technology. Despite substantial dependence on ideas initially developed in the United States and other countries, Japanese industry leads the United States in many areas and is gaining rapidly in virtually all areas examined.
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From page 39... ...
The structure of the building industries, (in which many smaller firms operate in narrow geographic areas and lack vertical integration) , a complex regulatory framework with many locally administered building codes, concentrated attention on reducing the initial cost of facilities (often at the expense of higher operating and maintenance costs)
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From page 40... ...
The Construction Industry Institute (CII) , based at the University of Texas, was established to motivate a closer partnership among academic, government, and private sector members of the industry and thereby improve communication as well as commonality of direction in solving industry problems.
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From page 41... ...
Computers are currently an extreme case: one leading maker of workstations popular with the developers and users of computer-aided design has introduced eight new generations of computers in less than 10 years (BuLkeley, 26Ib Sweden, with strong government support for the building industry and a much smaller set of participants, ideas spread more quickly. This situation sometimes causes problems when new ideas receive limited testing before widespread application ~I.
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From page 42... ...
Architects and engineers responsible for facilities planning and design may also seek innovation that improves their own work, and they are generally responsive to new products and processes that offer their clients improved performance at an affordable and competitive cost. However, buildings and other constructed facilities are subject to a large number of prescriptive controls placed on facility design, construction, and operation to ensure the safety and health of building occupants and neighbors.29 These controls, embodied in standards and guide specifications, building codes, and procurement regulations, contribute to social well-being but inevitably constrain the individual ability to innovate, both by preventing precipitous introduction of untried products and procedures and by 27Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning.
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From page 43... ...
Department of Transportation. PA more complete discussion of risk in and around buildings may be found in the BRB report Uses of Risk Analysis to Achieve Balanced Safety in Building Design and Operations (McDowell and Lemer, 1991~.
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From page 44... ...
They assert that newly graduated architects and engineers have little Imderstanding of the practical implications of theory and almost no familiarity with current practices in design and construction. These young professionals thus lack an essential ability to deal in practical terms with the cross-disciplinary judgments that are inherent to facilities design and construction.
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From page 45... ...
In general, education can create an intellectual environment more or less conducive to innovation. Committee members noted that levels of training and education among European craftsmen, design professionals, and construction companies appear to be generally higher than those in the United States and attribute higher European rates of new technology development, at least in part, to this factor.
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From page 46... ...
1991. ~Rapid" innovation and the integration of components: A comparison of user and manufacturer innovations through a study of the residential construction industry.
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