Risk stages and factors in architectural design- A structural equation modelling

The design phase is one of the key project processes in the construction industry. Despite the architects’ responsibility to develop complete, accurate and coordinated project documents, architectural design is accompanied by multiple errors and consequential risks. That is, the errors are potentially costly and time-consuming to correct and impose significant risks if are not caught early during the design phase, and become cumbersome to be handled in the construction documents and the construction phase. The aim of this research is to identify the risky stages in the architectural design process and find what factors cause risks in that process within the context of Iran. To this end, a combination of a qualitative and quantitative method as the sequential mixed-method was designed in which the research was commenced through the qualitative exploratory investigation to discover the literature and then, proceeded to the quantitative research including questionnaire design, model structure development and the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) application and analysis. The results of the study reveal that the greatest design risks may occur in the identification and investigation phase of the Iranian architectural design process when the feasibility studies and planning are not conducted accurately, correctly and completely. Moreover, the outcome shows that time pressures in design data collection, ambiguous objectives of the clients, and poor disciplinary coordination are the main risk factors in architectural design. documentation is important because clients ignore permission from architectstime pressures in the data collection stage are one of the root-causes of errorsengineers poorly interact with architects and clients as the main partiesthe process of the supplementary studies stage needs significant coordinationthe method of cost estimation and project planning is ineffective documentation is important because clients ignore permission from architects time pressures in the data collection stage are one of the root-causes of errors engineers poorly interact with architects and clients as the main parties the process of the supplementary studies stage needs significant coordination the method of cost estimation and project planning is ineffective

设计阶段是建筑业核心项目流程之一。尽管建筑师有责任编制完整、准确且协调统一的项目文件，但建筑设计过程中仍伴随大量差错及连带风险。换言之，此类差错若未在设计阶段及早发现，其整改将耗费高昂成本且耗时良久，同时会带来显著风险；而到了施工文件编制及施工阶段，这类问题将变得更加棘手。本研究旨在识别建筑设计流程中的高风险阶段，并探究伊朗语境下引发该流程风险的各类因素。为此，本研究采用定性与定量相结合的序贯混合研究法：首先通过定性探索性调研梳理相关文献，随后开展定量研究，包括问卷设计、模型结构搭建以及偏最小二乘结构方程模型（Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling, PLS-SEM）的应用与分析。研究结果显示，伊朗建筑设计流程中最突出的设计风险可能出现在识别与调研阶段，此时可行性研究与规划工作未能得到准确、正确且完整的开展。此外，研究结果还表明，设计数据收集阶段的时间压力、业主目标模糊不清以及跨专业协调不力，是建筑设计过程中的主要风险因素。文件编制的重要性体现在多方面：业主往往忽视建筑师的合规许可要求；数据收集阶段的时间压力是引发设计差错的根本诱因之一；作为核心参与方的工程师与建筑师、业主之间沟通不畅；补充研究阶段的流程需要高度的跨专业协调；当前的成本估算与项目规划方法存在缺陷。