Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Hartman's (1991) 'construction econom-
ics' relate only to projects and are similar to
Rakhra and Wilson's (1982) 'economics of
building' and Ofori's (1990) 'construction
project economics', respectively. However,
Stone's (1976) 'building economics' and
Hillebrandt's (1985) 'construction econom-
ics' incorporate both segments. The present
author prefers and adopts the title construc-
tion economics as a perspective encompass-
ing both the project and the industry, as this
enables all aspects of the field to be studied.
The project-related segment is basically
about techniques (such as cost planning,
life-cycle costing and value engineering) -
Raftery (1991) likens it to 'cost accounting
and management'. It is better known, as it
has received greater attention from research-
ers and in course syllabi (Ofori, 1990).
However, even here, there is some confu-
sion. Seeley (1983, p. 1) appears to make
'cost control' synonymous with construc-
tion project economics and Kelly (1983),
as well as Ferry and Brandon (1991), seem
to equate 'cost planning' with construction
project economics. Male and Kelly (1991)
refer to cost management and define it as 'a
synthesis of traditional quantity surveying
skills ... with structured cost reduction/cost
substitution procedures using the generation
of ideas by brainstorming ... in a multidis-
ciplinary team' (p. 25). Finally, Kelly and
Male (1993) have combined cost manage-
ment, which emphasises cost reduction at the
design stage, with value management, which
focuses on clients' needs prior to design, to
obtain the 'comprehensive service' of project
economics, which '…seeks to control time,
cost, and quality during design and construc-
tion within the context of project functional-
ity' (Marshall, 1993, p. 170).
It is necessary to delineate, agree upon
and continuously research into and improve
its segments and construction economics
should be developed as an integrated whole.
Conceptual structure
Cole (1983) distinguishes between the core
of a discipline, the 'fully evaluated and
universally accepted ideas' (p. 111) found in
all undergraduate textbooks and the research
frontier which includes all on-going studies,
most of which eventually turn out to be of
little or no significance. Does construction
economics have a core of confirmed and
accepted concepts?
Some key terms
Precise and common definitions are indis-
pensable building blocks in any discipline,
a key base of its conceptual structure.
Authors in construction economics often
find it necessary to define their main terms
(e.g. Batten, 1990; Ive, 1990). Bowen and
Edwards (1985) and Bowen (1993) define
such basic terms as estimating, forecasting,
cost and price. Some construction economics
terms, each of which has a clear definition
in general economics, are considered in this
section.
The industry
There is, as yet, no accepted definition of
the construction industry (Ofori, 1990).
Some writers consider it as involving only
site activity, others include the planning and
design functions and yet others extend it to
cover the manufacturing and supply of mate-
rials and components, finance of projects or
management of existing construction items
(Turin, 1975; Hillebrandt, 1985). This leads
to difficulties. For example, writers' basic
data and inferences often differ, simply
because they adopted different definitions of
'construction'.
Notes
1
As you will see in Ofori's search for consensus he
was prepared to include other authors' references
to building economics. He regards this as simply
a narrower version of construction economics.
As Ofori (1994: 296) explained at the start of the
paper, 'of the two commonly used titles, building
economics and construction economics, the latter
embraces the former, covering also civil engineer-
ing and other forms of construction'.
References
Ahuja, H.N. and Walsh, M.A. (1983)
Successful Cost Engineering
, Wiley, New
York
Ashworth, A. (1988)
Cost Studies of
Building
, Longman, Harlow
