The designer in refurbishment projects: implications to the compatibility of design

Abstract

Purpose

In refurbishment design, the individual designer is the one who ultimately determines the quality and performance of a project, but not his or her organization. Hence, various specific attributes are essential in the designers undertaking refurbishment projects. This directly influences the refurbishment project performance. The aims of this paper are to identify the important designer's attributes of refurbishment works and to develop prediction models for designer selection.

Design/methodology/approach

The study started with the identification of an important designer's attributes through literature review followed by a questionnaire survey. A set of questionnaires was distributed to 100 selected designers who handled refurbishment projects in Malaysia.

Findings

In conclusion, the study identified six key designer's attributes in refurbishment projects. The associative test shows that to improve a refurbishment project performance, the designers need to have knowledge, enthusiasm, commitment and coordination skills. From the initial result, two prediction models were produced for the compatibility of design to an existing site.

Originality/value

By identifying the important designer's attributes, this article contributes a reference about the basic requirements that a designer should have in refurbishment projects.

Citation

Ali, A. and Au‐Yong, C. (2013), "The designer in refurbishment projects: implications to the compatibility of design", Structural Survey, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 202-213. https://doi.org/10.1108/SS-11-2012-0038