The design process of building refurbishment on project performance

Building refurbishment sector is one of the most important sectors in most developed countries. This sector is becoming an important economic driver in the Malaysian construction industry due to the presence of a high number of ageing buildings and rapid change of technology. Many of these buildings need to be refurbished. Refurbishment projects are considered to be more complex, uncertain and risky than new build. Due to that reasons, it needs to be managed differently. Integrated and efficient design process is critical to refurbishment projects? success. Lack of accurate and complete information during design stage often leads to architects producing designs which are inappropriate and require extensive changes during construction stage. The main objectives of this paper are to identify the factors that contribute to uncertainty in refurbishment design process and to show how the uncertainty affects the design process performance. The paper also suggests the integrative mechanisms that need to be used during design process in order to improve its performance