Component-Based Design: A Summary and Scheme for Implementation

Abstract

This paper summarizes the major advantages of component-based design as a paradigm for handling all design and construction information about a building at every stage of design. The paper reviews some of the current issues that plague the building design and construction industry. The component-based paradigm is reviewed as a model that reunites the fragmented building industry and as a solution for dealing with vast amounts of information that accretes during the design-construction process. Based on interviews with architects, engineers, contractors and fabricators as well as on-site documentation of construction we feature the design and construction of the main stair in the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art designed by Zaha Hadid as a specific case study to illustrate the viability of component-based design and to highlight the obstacles challenging its implementation.