INFLUENCE OF PROJECT DESIGN COLLABORATION ON BUILDING SAFETY IN NAIROBI CITY COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Nairobi City County is currently experiencing a building crisis as the current demand of housing units remains higher than the available supply. The building crisis is associated with limited expertise and fewer experienced building professionals in the industry while the high demand for housing units is attributed to the growing population resulting from rural-urban migration which has been the trend since independence. This has led to influx of uncontrolled developments most of which have not passed any building approvals. This practice is synonymous with structural failures, massive damage of property, serious injuries and loss of lives when buildings under construction or on occupancy collapse. Each participant in the building industry continues to play their individual roles in ensuring safety. However, whenever incidences occur, the heaviest burden of blame falls on the project designers possibly due to inclusions or omissions in the design whose safety implications are experienced at the execution stage as carry-over effects. Investigations have not substantially established the real cause of these incidences. This calls for a broader dimension on active integration and collaboration between parties which could achieve a significant improvement in building safety. The rates of work attendance in construction projects could improve due to reduced absenteeism rates. Accident rates could also reduce drastically when safety is adhered to. This research focused on different levels of collaborations between architects and other building players and how their cooperation can influence building safety. The study was pegged on two objectives namely, the influence of designer-client and designer-designer collaborations on building safety in construction projects. By taking building designers (architects) as key participants, research utilized a descriptive design. It targeted 206 registered architects who were considered as lead designers in the design team of building projects. Selection of the sample followed a purposeful random sampling procedure to obtain participants who had experience in structural designs and who were capable of offering adequate information on the subject matter. For pilot study, twenty one (21) structured questionnaires were administered in both open-ended and closed questions. Raw data was classified, presented in tables and analyzed by use of SPSS software version 20. Both descriptive and correlation results indicated a positive and significant relationship between project design collaborations and building safety. The study concluded that enhancement of design partnerships at all collaboration levels of collaboration improves safety. The study recommended further researches on other levels of collaborations and collaboration with other stakeholders apart from the ones studied.

Keywords: Designer-Client Collaboration, Designer-Designer Collaboration, Building Safety

CITATION: Mutiku, J. K., &  Mutiso, J. (2020). Influence of project design collaboration on building safety in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 7(3), 195 – 205.