A leading international construction expert is urging the Australian industry to rate projects based on their contribution to the overall industry.
Professor Paolo Tombesi, the new chair in construction at the University of Melbourne, will give his first lecture next week on his work over the past 10 years on innovations issues in the building industry. ??
“One of the things I will be trying to convey is that innovation policy requires a very clear understanding of the building market for which they are being implemented - making a distinction between building markets that are based on customers versus building markets based on expressed demand of client bodies,” Tombesi told Architecture & Design.
??Trained as an architect in Italy, Tombesi’s work has been on the relationship between the intellectual dimension of building and the socio-technical aspects of building procurement. His studies are based on the examination of construction artifacts within their industrial and regional context, in a way that blends the study of professional activity with economic geography, and technical culture with policy-making. ??
“One of my concluding points is that in Australia we don’t have very clear idea about what our innovation policies are,” he said. ??
One of his key concerns is that after the decision to fund a particularly ambitious building or capital projects is made, there is no clear procedure to go about understanding the impact of that particular project and the decisions made relating to that project on the whole industry. ??
His argument is that any review of the construction should not be limited to its schedule and costs, particularly if it is a project for the government. ??The professorial inaugural lecture “Inventing Innovation” is on Tuesday October 20, at 6.30pm in the Prince Philip Lecture Theatre (Ground Floor, Architecture Building, University of Melbourne). To register email: [email protected]
