Dear Jonathan,

It basically depends on what you produce and the accurate answer differs from one case to another; but as a general strategy/technique one may think about "life-cycle assessment" in terms of energy and carbon footprint of products during their design process and try to minimize the negative effects in early stages. This could function as an indicator to evaluate the design alternatives for a product.

Good evening Mr Frost

There are ways on how design can contribute towards waste reductions. The examples can include modular coordination including working to brick sizes; coordinating floor to ceiling height to plasterboard size to reduce off-cuts; using mechanically fixed rather than bonded single ply membrane for the roofs to encourage reuse at the end of building life; using untreated wood products to encourage reuse and recycling; to name few.

These approaches to a great extent require supporting legislation. For example on a project, an attempt was made to reuse structural timber frame installed in the 1990s in the UK, but it proved to be quite difficult to find a way how this exposed structural timber beam and post frame can be resized and used as an internal timber frame within new extension to the same building. It appears that it is cheaper to dispose of the original timber frame than to prove that the resized timber will be of the appropriate structural grade for reuse.

However, this efforts require support by the construction industry too. For example it is my understanding that in some countries the factories can produce plaster based construction boards to suit the actual wall sizes, thus minimizing construction waste from the product.

Based on your research interest you may want to consider the http://www.wrap.org.uk/

In the past they used to have an online tool to assist construction waste reduction efforts.

With Best Wishes

Vladimir Ladinski

Hi Mr. Frost. I would agree with the previous commentors. However, I just want to add some points to the discussion.

In my humble opinion, concerted efforts in minimising wastages should be in place, notwithstanding any stages in construction. Thus, strategically, holistic ecosystem in supporting those is indeed needed.

In a nutshell, analysing both the internal ecosystem and external ecosystem is of paramount. Internal ecosystem is basically related to the factors that is within the project itself, for example sustainable design, competency of designer, material selection, etc. Meanwhile, external ecosystem is generally related to the regulation set by relevant authorities, market forces, societal and economic demands, etc.

From these, I would say and believe, wastages can be reduce in all facets of construction project lifecycle.

Happy researching ;-)

hairuddin

From my experience, it helps as much as possible for designs to suite standard specifications. Altering materials to suit customized specifications sometimes results in eastern during the construction phases. We cannot limit designers, but as much as possible this can help. I think the construction industry can pick some insights from the car manufacturing industry. They are two different industries but I believe a lot can be learned from them.

From my experience, it helps as much as possible for designs to suite standard specifications. Altering standard materials to suit customized specifications sometimes results in eastern during the construction phases. We cannot limit designers, but as much as possible this can help. I think the construction industry can pick some insights from the car manufacturing industry. They are two different industries but I believe a lot can be learned from them.

The use of continuous constructability review and early contracto involvement both have the potential to reduce not only physical waste on the construction site but also lost design effort during design.

Hello Frost!

It will be of help if you can explain what you meant by "Waste during design stage".

I totally agree with the commentators who highlighted the use of modular design and standardization in stead of customization.

Constructability/buildability reviews as mentioned can help a lot to reduce waste as mentioned above.

Using integrated system solutions is another way to reduce waste at the design stage.

I also suggest value engineering as an approach to bring people together before construction and will definitely help to give

By waste I mean materials that will end up in land fill, things such as design change I have found to be a big contribute towards waste as materials that have already been ordered and manufactured are then discarded. Apreciate the answeres. I ask thid question as im considering doing my dissertation around this topic due to waste being a big issue in construction.

Jonathan Frost, this is really a nice question to ask. During design face we as a construction industry can't reduce waste as there is lot of difference between what on paper and what is on the ground.

According to my knowledge, Sustainable design can be a solution for the reduction of waste but this can only be achieved with the integration of the contractor and the designer from the start of the idea generation till the end of the construction.

Indeed the waste generation is a big problem in construction industry but it can be nil by the integration of the activities involved in the construction project. Pre-project planning is the most important thing for any construction project which should involve each and every person indulge in the project and around the project i.e. local authority, people and the available resources.

I hope it may help in your project.

Reduce waste during design stage...

I think one of the ways is to design and plan the construction site layout in such a way that movement of materials over a long distance is drastically reduced. More so, you can plan to use prefab components.

Good morning Mr. Frost, construction is in fact one of the greatest producers of waste between all the industries, from my point of view to reduce it from the design is necessary the use of more industrialized proceedings. As much as we introduce prefabrication in construction we could control better the production and development of the buildings. Also in general to apply Lean Construction methodology will influence the reduction of waste since the very beginning of the design.

Good question,

First it is interesting to define waste. Or be aware that the concept of waste is too broad!

Constructive strategies are designed to reduce the waste of the building process from the principles of lean construction. In this case the focus is on wastes such as waiting, transportation, improvisation, excess inventory, among others.

An interesting strategy for designers is to consider modular coordination. Draw spaces and materials respecting and considering the dimensions of the building elements, such as brick, block of plaster or plasterboard.

Waste exists in all stages of project delivery process. A lot of waste is in the Conception/Briefing stage necessitating Programming in the Briefing stage. BIM is a necessity if waste is to be reduced in professional inputs in the design stage and the whole life cycle of the project. BIM by itself should be multidisciplinary involving more than people in the buiding industry as presently defined. For example product engineers in building materials production/manufacturing should be involved. Implementation of design during construction needs more automation and highly skilled manpower that may not be available in developing countries. The documentation of the whole process from initiation of a project to completion and subsequent use is necessary. This is not an easy matter considering that different people and organisations will have been involved at different stages of the project delivery. How can we accurately develop such a document ...and hand it over from people to people or organisation to organisation...over the years....to reduce waste in the entire project life.?? Such information is necessary as inputs into research for further reducing waste in the process