Managing design with the effective use of communication media : the relationship between design dialogues and design team meetings

Effective and efficient design team communication is an essential component of architectural design and construction projects. Face-to-face communication, via meetings and dialogue, is an essential means for design team members to discuss and communicate design ideas. Meetings represent an important forum in which all parties have an opportunity to understand the implications of design decisions n a number of levels. Dialogue between design team members forms an important part of the international communication that occurs during design development. Dialogues have the highest chance of achieving understanding of the design, especially in the early phases when uncertainty is high and less design information is generated compared with later stages in the project. A survey of communication practices via project websites across multiple cases found that design team members chose dialogues as their preferred communication medium. The results are discussed againat research findings from communication in design and management team meetings. The relationship between dialogues and team meetings is then explored from a design team management perspective. The results have implications for the effectiveness of communications within international design teams and hence the manner in which communications are planned and managed