Adaption of construction management aspects and building economic principles to prevent cost overruns in modern timber construction

• Published in: IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering Vol. 800; no. 1; pp. 12030 - 12039
• Main Authors: Koppelhuber, J, Bok, M W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.03.2020
• Subjects: Construction; Construction industry; Construction management; Economics; Mathematical analysis; Modernization; Prefabrication; Principles; Timber construction; Value engineering; Wood laminates; Wooden structures
• ISSN: 1757-8981; 1757-899X
• DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/800/1/012030

The timber construction industry is subject to continuous development and steady modernisation worldwide. This leads to a compelling necessity regarding highly industrialised and standardised processes - both technological and economical - along the value chain of today's timber construction. Within this field innovative materials and products (such as cross laminated timber - CLT) in combination with a deeply rooted systematic approach are used to create large span and multi-storey timber structures. The results are displayed in an increased use of (partially) automated machines and production plants, novel (semi-)prefabricated components as well as complex software solutions. However - next to numerous technical researches - numerous aspects within construction management and building economics require intensive investigation. Since the influencing factors from economical point of view have been criminally neglected over the past decades it becomes apparent that aspects such as cost planning and estimation, invitation and call for tender as well as cost calculation of timber construction projects demand comprehensive research. Therefore, an outstanding and all-encompassing investigation has been carried out over the past 6 years in Austria at the University of Technology in Graz [1] to identify, develop and implement building economic principles and relating tools focussing exclusively on timber construction. Therefore, the emphasis was set on the development and practical implementation of timber-specific solutions in order to avoid cost overruns and hidden costs during design, construction and use. Possible approaches to solve this lack of economical and operational instruments in timber construction are discussed in this paper.