ABSTRACT

The cost of industrial building construction has risen dramatically in recent years. Excessive construction costs have eroded the competitive position of the US construction industry and are having a similar impact on the manufacturing industry by preventing it from building new plants and modernizing existing ones. An effective solution to these problems is the introduction of new technologies that enhance the quality of the building product, increase construction efficiency, and decrease costs. This paper presents the ABT Matrix system, an information system for describing and documenting advanced building technologies (ABTs) and lists the names of the 151 ABTs that have been documented using this system. The Advanced Building Technologies Matrix is a database system that relates building systems to specific technologies and vice versa. In its present implementation the ABT Matrix can be used as: (1) a direct source of initial information about the documented ABTs, (2) a pilot implementation and an example of the ABT database system, and (3) a basis for developing similar, in-house, ABT documentation systems.

AUTHORS

Photios G. Ioannou and Robert I. Carr

Civil & Environmental Engineering Department

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2125, U.S.A.

e-mail: photios@umich.edu

KEYWORDS

Building construction, building design, building system classification, technology database, industrial buildings.

AVAILABILITY

Ioannou, P.G., R.I. Carr, "Advanced Building Technology Matrix System," Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE, Vol. 114, No. 4, 517-531, Dec. 1988.