INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION

Abstract

In an era when the capabilities of Information Technology (IT) are talked about as reforming the world's economy, it becomes a reasonable question as whether existing IT tools are being• applied to their best practice in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry or not The tremendous speed and enormous diversity of technological developments sometimes makes many IT publications out of elate before they even go to proof. Consequently, opportunities are sometimes lost to gather and to structure aterial, and to learn from experience of those applying IT within their business.

The AEC practice has an enormous amount to gain from IT. Thus IT is expected to be an essential component in successful companies of the future. The importance of computers and IT applications' to architects and engineers comes from the role played by them to overcome the fragmented nature of the AEC industry. In addition, IT helps the disciplines invoived in the building process to innovate and enhance their designs. This is achieved by taking away some of the repetitive tasks, doing what architects and engineers already do but faster and with more accuracy. This means allowing the addition of testing to let them see more clearly where they can innovate.

IT enhances to a great extent, the dissemination of knowledge and expertise. It also positively affects the speed and volume of information that can be processed, exchanged, and shared between a project's team members. In addition, IT can save time, make information management more effective and offers better communication, thus IT acts like "Knowledge Facilitator" (Phiri, 1999).

In this context, the biggest challenge becomes not only to increase the awareness of IT applications related to the AEC industry, or to explore the opportunities offered by lT in this field but to keep up with the latest IT developments as well.

A popular misconception of IT is that it is very complicated to use and even more difficult to understand. This is not the case, as this study will demonstrate. This thesis ain1s to bridge the gap between theoretical developments in IT facilities and the best practice of such facilities, while focusing on the realities of the AEC industry, and more specifically the architectural practices' business methods, work patterns and organizational culture.