Evaluation of shared understanding in multidisciplinary architecture, engineering and construction design teams

Uncoordinated, incomplete building construction documents are resulting in added costs, extended schedules, and a reduction in the product quality. A suggested cause is that the multidisciplinary team who create the construction documents lack a shared understanding of the activities involved in the process. The aim of this study is to assess the current understanding of the disciplines during the construction document development stage in terms of processes and information development to determine the barriers and enablers to achieve shared understanding. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from disciplines directly involved in construction document development and thematic analysis was used to apply themes to the transcripts. The results showed that one of the biggest barriers to achieving shared understanding is the procurement method of the consultants on lowest cost basis, as this leads to negative behaviours which greatly reduces the quality of the documents.

Citation

McLoughlin, B., Renukappa, S. (2026) Evaluation of shared understanding in multidisciplinary architecture, engineering and construction design teams. Architecture, Structures and Construction, 6 (1), Article no 5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44150-026-00188-0

Type

Journal article

Language

en

Description

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Springer Nature in Architecture, Structures and Construction on 08/03/2026, available online: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44150-026-00188-0 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version. This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://doi.org/10.1007/s44150-026-00188-0

ISSN

2730-9886

EISSN

2730-9894

Collections

Faculty of Science and Engineering