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Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps …
HABITAT INTL. Vol 3. No l/2, pp 77-78. Pereamon Press, 1978. Prmted mcireat Br~tam
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps D.
. . .(l)
A.TURIN
As time goes by it is becoming increasingly difficult to say something about the construction industry which is both original and true. The proliferation of bodies, joint groups (senior or junior), committees and working parties, interdisciplinary and consultative bodies, and so on, is such that the time has come when a book or quotations on the building industry could be put together and printed with some success by a commercial publisher to be used on occasions like this. Since I have the privilege of being the guest speaker today and you have no chance of either asking questions or answering back, I will take advantage of this situation by telling you a few things which might be original but not necessarily true. In an age of forecasting, advance programming, operations research and resource allocation, where planned uncertainty has become an element of our daily life, I shall open each of my statements with the word ‘perhaps’ and leave it to the statistician to assess what they euphemistically call the ‘confidence limit’. Perhaps the construction
industry in this country is not doing so badly after all.
Perhaps of all major sectors of the economy, it is the one that on average has shown the least fluctuations from year to year since the war and a remarkably steady rate of increase which has never varied by more than 1-2070between successive years. Perhaps the building industry is remarkably well adapted to its market and has proved its flexibility in satisfying a demand whose composition and location changes continuously. Perhaps many forms of industrialisation of the building process would limit the manoeuvrability of a production tool which has managed over the years to contribute a good 6-7% to the Gross Domestic Product and which can keep a variety of professions, not to mention over one million operatives, if not really happy, at least reasonably busy. Perhaps the essence of industrialisation on the scale necessary to produce real economic benefits implies a mechanism of long-term planning and commitment of resources which is not particularly suitable to meet the moving requirements of the built environment. Perhaps the building industry, because of its present structure, is in a better position to introduce quickly technical innovations adapted to its needs than it would be if it was a more capital intensive industry.
(l)Originally delivered by Professor contracting firm, December 1966.
Turin on opening a new headquarters
77
building in London
for a building
78
D. A. Turin
Perhaps there is not enough labour in construction substantial labour-saving capital investment.
anyway to provide an incentive for
Perhaps there is no such thing as a market price for the product of the building industry. Perhaps the differences in quality between buildings sold for the same price are greater than the differences in prices for buildings presumed to be of the same quality. Perhaps a second generation of progressive quantity surveyors should establish a quality research panel and proceed to quality analysis, quality planning, quality control and quality research. Perhaps there is too little incentive for a manufacturer of building materials or components to reduce the selling price of his product with a view to increasing its sales. Perhaps there is little to be gained within the present technologies reduction of variety of types.
from a further
Perhaps this is the very reason why it is so difficult to persuade any member of the building team to take the first step towards greater standardisation. Perhaps it is not feasible to train jointly all the building professions; some of the excitement of our work comes perhaps from a confrontation of different approaches to the same problem. Perhaps there is an urgent need for a School for the Building Client as opposed to a School for the Built Environment. Perhaps all this is true, perhaps not.. .
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps D.
. . .(l)
A.TURIN
As time goes by it is becoming increasingly difficult to say something about the construction industry which is both original and true. The proliferation of bodies, joint groups (senior or junior), committees and working parties, interdisciplinary and consultative bodies, and so on, is such that the time has come when a book or quotations on the building industry could be put together and printed with some success by a commercial publisher to be used on occasions like this. Since I have the privilege of being the guest speaker today and you have no chance of either asking questions or answering back, I will take advantage of this situation by telling you a few things which might be original but not necessarily true. In an age of forecasting, advance programming, operations research and resource allocation, where planned uncertainty has become an element of our daily life, I shall open each of my statements with the word ‘perhaps’ and leave it to the statistician to assess what they euphemistically call the ‘confidence limit’. Perhaps the construction
industry in this country is not doing so badly after all.
Perhaps of all major sectors of the economy, it is the one that on average has shown the least fluctuations from year to year since the war and a remarkably steady rate of increase which has never varied by more than 1-2070between successive years. Perhaps the building industry is remarkably well adapted to its market and has proved its flexibility in satisfying a demand whose composition and location changes continuously. Perhaps many forms of industrialisation of the building process would limit the manoeuvrability of a production tool which has managed over the years to contribute a good 6-7% to the Gross Domestic Product and which can keep a variety of professions, not to mention over one million operatives, if not really happy, at least reasonably busy. Perhaps the essence of industrialisation on the scale necessary to produce real economic benefits implies a mechanism of long-term planning and commitment of resources which is not particularly suitable to meet the moving requirements of the built environment. Perhaps the building industry, because of its present structure, is in a better position to introduce quickly technical innovations adapted to its needs than it would be if it was a more capital intensive industry.
(l)Originally delivered by Professor contracting firm, December 1966.
Turin on opening a new headquarters
77
building in London
for a building
78
D. A. Turin
Perhaps there is not enough labour in construction substantial labour-saving capital investment.
anyway to provide an incentive for
Perhaps there is no such thing as a market price for the product of the building industry. Perhaps the differences in quality between buildings sold for the same price are greater than the differences in prices for buildings presumed to be of the same quality. Perhaps a second generation of progressive quantity surveyors should establish a quality research panel and proceed to quality analysis, quality planning, quality control and quality research. Perhaps there is too little incentive for a manufacturer of building materials or components to reduce the selling price of his product with a view to increasing its sales. Perhaps there is little to be gained within the present technologies reduction of variety of types.
from a further
Perhaps this is the very reason why it is so difficult to persuade any member of the building team to take the first step towards greater standardisation. Perhaps it is not feasible to train jointly all the building professions; some of the excitement of our work comes perhaps from a confrontation of different approaches to the same problem. Perhaps there is an urgent need for a School for the Building Client as opposed to a School for the Built Environment. Perhaps all this is true, perhaps not.. .