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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Professional pr actice in progr amming large
public buildings in China: A questionnaire survey
Ying Deng
a,
n
, S.W. Poon
b
a
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
b
Department of Real Estate and Construction, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Received 18 February 2013; received in revised form 7 April 2013; accepted 8 April 2013
KEYWORDS
Architectural pro-
gramming;
The early stages;
Large public building
(LPB);
Questionnaire survey;
China
Abstract
China's large public buildings (LPBs) often become problematic after only a few years'
operation, leading to shortened building lifespans. Lacking architectural programming was
identified by the industry regulators as a contributing factor to this. Despite a policy shift on the
government side since 2007, little evaluation of the actual situation has been made. To raise
awareness and attention to this pressing issue from the building industry, its regulators and the
general public, a questionnaire survey focusing on the top-tier sector of professional practice in
programming LPBs was carried out in Shanghai, China in 2009. The objectives were to evaluate
current trends and pressing issues, identify major challenges and opportunities, and make
recommendations for improvement. This paper presents a six-part analysis of the survey's
findings from 57 professionals and clients who shared their hands-on experience on various
programming issues and provided first-hand data of 90 LPBs developed in the 2000s. This
pioneering study revealed significant gaps between the real and best practices as well as the
mental reluctance and skill mismatch in delivering quality programming services. Given the
persisting nature of identified problems, more research work should be done to catalyze a
paradigmatic shift among industry players.
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1. Introduction
1.1. Poor programming leads to short-lived
buildings
In the wake of the late 2000s' global economic slowdown,
China's stimulus program has triggered a significant upsurge
in the construction sector. With a total expenditure of US$1
2095-2635 & 2013. Higher Education Press Limited Company. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2013.04.002
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2241 5896.
E-mail address: ydeng@hku.hk (Y. Deng).
Peer review under responsibility of Southeast University.
Frontiers of Architectural Research (2013) 2, 222– 233
trillion, China overtook the United States as the world's
biggest construction market in 2010 (Betts et al., 2011).
Despite an annual average of new construction up to
2 billion m
2
or an equivalent of 40% of the world's total, a
building's life span was only averaged about 35 years in
China, lagging far behind 74 years in the United States and
132 years in the United Kingdom, according to the Ministry
of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MoHURD) (Qiu,
2010). This “ephemerality” phenomenon not only exist
among those jerry-built residential buildings but already
extend to many large public buildings (LPBs).
China's Ministry of Construction et al. (2007) defines LPBs
as the buildings, each with a floor area of 20,000 m
2
or
above, which are used for any single or combined purposes
of office, commerce, tourism, science, education, culture,
health, communications, and transportation. A root cause
for their shortened lifespans, as pointed out by MoHURD
(2008) (the successor of the Ministry of Construction after
2007), was a lack of rigorous architectural programming as
the critical first step of the early stages. Driven by the
mindset to flaunt economic ascendancy through huge
expenditure on image building, quite a number of LPBs
across the country were overdesigned in form but under-
designed in substance. As a result, many so-called landmarks
easily become underuse, energy-intensive or even unsafe to
use after only a few years in operation (Architecture We ekly,
2008; Qiu, 2010). Despite exorbitant initial costs mainly on
fancy facades and excessive decoration, less consideration was
shown to fundamental building performance issues of spatial
and functional integrity, user comfort, adaptability, economy,
safety, energy efficiency, locality, and sustainability. The
ignorance at the early stages may start a vicious cycle of
frequent revamping, deconstruction and reconstruction after
a building is occupied. This may explain why poor program-
ming leads to short-lived buildings.
Just as a house built on an inadequate foundation will not
last long, a building based on an incomplete program is
seldom viable. In practice, this has been well received
among the developed economies but not in China by far.
Following the pioneering paper “Architectural Program-
ming: Important Steps Before Design Can Begin” (Peña and
Good, 1967), the significance of architectural programming
has been generally realized by the industry and well
researched by the academia in North America and Europe.
For instance, extensive programming efforts must be made
before undertaking and commissioning architectural design
for large and complex building projects in most states of the
United States. This has in turn encourage large American
design practices to foster strong in-house capacities and
close ties with professional programmers (Preiser, 1993).
Similar regulatory mechanisms and codes of practice have
been implemented long in the United Kingdom although
laden with many practical problems (Blyth and Worthington,
2010; Kamara and Anumba, 2001). By contrast, there was a
long interval before the term architectural programming
was translated into Chinese in the 1990s. Except for the first
domestic publication on architectural programming by
Zhuang (2000), related overseas literature in its original or
translated versions was rare in China in the meantime.
Domestic professional institutions also lacked focused
efforts to promote this emerging concept and benchmark
best practices, lagging behind their overseas counterparts
such as American Institute of Architects, Royal Institute of
British Architects and Australian Institute of Architects.
1.2. Police shift
As a good public building has to serve good to the public (Nasar,
1999), it becomes an imperative for China's building industry to
increase the number of quality built products rather than the
volume of new construction alone. The international focus on
building sustainability, in particular, energy and economic
resources management, has put on a new challenge on the
building industry besides the traditional emphasis on quality,
safety and environment. To curb the proliferation of proble-
matic LPBs, a range of regulatory changes were jointly initiated
in 2007 by the Ministry of Construction and four other related
state ministries (2007). A tougher control was imposed over the
number, scale and quality of LPBs. Moreover, MoHURD (2008)
updated The provisions of schematic design tendering for
construction projects, calling for substantial rectification in
the following aspects of the entire design tendering process:
(1) The inclusion of detailed expert reports concerning a
building's functional performance, energy efficiency,
construction and operational costs in the design bidding
documents.
(2) The involvement of interdisciplinary experts in the design
review process.
(3) A tougher control over the launching of international
design competitions to avoid unnecessary pursuit of
signature architecture.
(4) The inclusion of public consultation to enhance the
transparency in the decision-making process.
Table 1 summarizes the best practice at the early stages
of LPBs advocated in the above two government instruc-
tions. Despite a good starting point for a long overdue
correction, little research has been carried out to probe
Table 1 Highlighted issues by MoHURD (2008) and
Ministry of Construction of PRC (2007).
Issues at the
early stages
The best practice
Client's program The client shall seek experts' advice,
clarify project requirements, and
determine critical technical and
economic parameters.
Schematic design The schematic design shall conform to
approved master plan, detailed
regulatory plan of the specific site,
and urban design of the site.
Format of design
competition
Domestic rather than international
design competitions shall be the first
choice for clients.
Review of design
competition
Open and transparent procedures
shall be devised for the process, while
the requirements and accountability
of jury shall be clarified.
223A questionnaire survey on programming large public buildings in China
into the real professional practice in programming LPBs and
to map out the actual situation at large. Built upon such
evidence-based findings, specific coping strategies with
operational guidelines can be formulated for consideration
by the government regulators.
1.3. Aim and objectives
The main thrust of this paper was to raise awareness and
attention to this pressing issue by stakeholders of the
building industry and the general public who are bonded
by their common interests in LPBs. To this end, a ques-
tionnaire survey on the professional practice in program-
ming LPBs developed in the 2000s was conducted in
Shanghai, China in 2009. Specific objectives of this explora-
tive study were to evaluate the current trends and issues;
identify related challenges and opportunities; and promote
the needed consensus on formulating a way forward among
the government regulators, professionals and scholars.
Given the time, physical and financial constraints, it was
deemed realistic to keep clarity and focus by starting with
representative individuals and organizations in the top-tier
sector of LPBs, i.e., those with significant impacts on the
local and national scales. This was based on a simple
rationale: if the professional practice sampled from the
specific “high-end stratus” with more regulated clients and
better qualified professionals is problematic as against the
best practice, it will be more confident to predicate more
problems in the rest “strata” and infer the magnitude of the
issue at large.
2. Research framework
The rest of this paper is structured in three parts. The
research framework is first introduced in terms of its
theoretical background, method and design, selection cri-
teria, and data collection. This is followed by a six-part
presentation of the survey's major findings. Finally, conclu-
sions are drawn and recommendations made to the industry
and its regulators.
2.1. Theoretical background
A building's lifecycle can be mainly phased into the early
stages and the later stages as shown in Table 2. Although
research findings continue to prove well-informed early
stages lead to well-performed buildings, the input at the
early stages remains significantly lower than that at the
later stages in practice (Barrett and Stanley, 1999; Best and
Valence, 1999; Smith et al., 2001; Smith, 2003; Vanston,
2003). As an initial step towards a building's lifecycle and an
integral component of the early stages, the process of
programming (briefing) allows all stakeholders to assess
opportunities and constraints, investigate and communicate
requirements, and develop a program statement as the
guidance of a proper design solution and as a constant
yardstick against the built product (Hershberger, 1999;
Kumlin, 1995; Peña and Parshall, 2001). A program is a set
of documents that explicitly clarifies the objectives, exist-
ing contexts, philosophies and functional requirements of a
project to facilitate design decision making (Preiser, 1993).
An important attribute of a program is that it never remains
Table 2 The phasing of a building project's lifecycle.
Sources: complied from (Austen and Neale, 1984; Best and Valence, 1999; Bowen et al., 1997; Carmichael, 2006; Cherry, 1998;
Cherry and Petronis, 2005; Cleland and Ireland, 2007; Hershberger, 1999; Ryd, 2004).
No. of sub-
stages
The early stages The later stages
Three Brief and design Construction planning Construction
Pre-design Design Post-design
Feasibility Pre-construction Construction
Programming Designing Building (execution)
Pre-project
(briefing)
Project (design and construction) Post-project (review )
Appraisal Implementation Operation
Four Programming Design Construction Occupancy
Appraisal Design Construction Operation
Five Program
development
Preliminary
design
Production Construction Post-occupancy
Concept Briefing Planning Production Evaluation
Preparation Design Pre-construction Construction Management
Concept Development Implementation Termination Operation, maintenance
Concept Definition Production Operation Divestment
Briefing Designing Tendering Constructing Commissioning
Planning Programming Design Construction Occupancy
Six Programming Schematic
design
Design
development
Construction
documents
Construction Occupancy
Y. Deng, S.W. Poon224
static but is subjected to constant validation by the client
organization and its understanding of external demand (Best
and Valence, 1999).
A large and complex building project may also include the
preliminary/schematic design phase (Table 2). According to
MoHURD (2008), an open or invited architectural competi-
tion is compulsory for any LPBP in China, unless otherwise
specified. As a key approach to procuring quality building
products, design competitions can be categorized into
several basic formats and developed into more combined
options (Table 3). As an important vehicle between the
competition sponsor (usually the client) and the competi-
tors, a competition program serves as an important vehicle
to clarify the client's requirements, de fine terms of refer-
ence for the competitors, and provide yardsticks for the
jury's evaluation of the competition entries (American
Institute of Architects, 1988; RAIA, 2003).
2.2. Research method and design
The method of questionnaire survey, due to its extensive
use in programming research worldwide [e.g., (Bowen
et al., 1997; Brown, 2001; Kelly et al., 2005; Preiser,
1993; Shen and Chung, 2006)], was employed for this
experimental study in China. Based on these previous
studies, three interrelated common issues were identified.
Firstly, intensive client involvement in establishing a good
program holds the key to the quality of design service
(Barrett and Baldry, 2003), but the issue of a client
organization is often ignored or oversimplified (Boyd and
Chinyio, 2006). Secondly, organizational issues rather than
methodological issues arising from the client organization
might exert greater impacts on the outcome of a project,
but were largely ignored in the programming process
(Farbstein, in Preiser, 1993, p. 384). Finally, for a large
and complicated project, it is difficult to determine the
components of its programming team in practice (Kumlin,
1995). These formed part of the focal issues considered in
the survey. The questionnaire was structured in six parts
containing 26 questions—among which 14 (54%) are closed
ended, 10 (38%) are semi-closed ended, and the rest two
(8%) open-ended (Table 4).
2.3. Sampling techniques
A few sampling techniques, i.e., cluster sampling, stratified
sampling, convenience sampling and snowball sampling
were used in combination (Groves, 2002), to better focus
on the target group and yield more valid and accurate
results in a timely and cost-effective manner.
(1) Cluster sampling was employed to determine Shanghai
as the initial survey base for several reasons. Normally,
an international metropolis has a better chance than
other less internationalized cities to attract and accom-
modate major developments. Shanghai fits the profile
due to its reputation as one of the most developed
markets for LPBs in China and its global perspective and
all-inclusive capacity to attract diversified resources.
(2) There were several reasons to use stratified sampling.
Among others the construction of major building flag-
ships led by Expo 2010 served as a big boost for an influx
of domestic and overseas industrial players into the city
since 2001. This would facilitate the selection and
liaising of respondents of different natures. A number
of high-profile international design competitions were
launched by several well-established local developers
between 2004 and 2007. The shortlisted design agencies
were invited mainly for their extensive experience and
track record in handling large and complex building
projects in China and overseas. The highly strict screen-
ing processes of design tendering indicated that the
clients and designers selected from a large pool of
qualified candidates at the local, regional and interna-
tional levels would be representative of the top-tier
players in LPBs as the targeted subgroup. Hence, this
group of respondents were considered as the most
suitable “stratus” for this explorative study.
(3) As convenience sampling is most useful for pilot testing
(Fink, 1995), the first author's work experience in both
the professional and government sectors of Shanghai
between 2003 and 2007 offered another bonus in the
process of liaising with the target respondents.
(4) Snowballing sampling were used when some initially
approached respondents agreed to refer more potential
respondents whom they considered capable of answer-
ing the questionnaire due to their job nature and work
experience.
2.4. Selection criteria
Three major criteria were set out for selecting respondents
as follows:
(1) The inclusion of client organizations. Unlike some
previous surveys aiming solely at professional consul-
tants such as architects, key client members as the
driving force of the early stages were also included. The
inclusion of design consultants of various nature and
their clients allowed pressing issues highlighted in the
two government documents mentioned earlier to be
explored more completely.
(2) The capacity of design agencies. Due to the highly
selective nature of the procurement processes for major
Table 3 Categorization of design competition.
Sources: American Institute of Architects, 1988 ; Nasar,
1999; RAIA, 2003.
Aspects of consideration Types of
competition
Eligibility of competitors Open
Limited/selected
Scope of the competition International
National
Regional
Objective of the competition Idea
Project
Scale and complexity of the
project
One-stage
Two-stage
225A questionnaire survey on programming large public buildings in China
LPBs, design contracts are usually awarded to a limited
number of large and interdisciplinary practices experi-
enced in handling sophisticated design tasks. It hence
made sense to seek respondents from these agencies.
(3) The capacity of respondents. To ensure the validity and
accuracy of first-hand data, preference was given to those
potential respondents with both decision-making autho-
rities and enriched experience at the early stages of LPBs.
2.5. Data collection
The questionnaire sheets were prepared in Chinese and English
versions to suit different needs. In January 2009, the hard-
copies of 70 questionnaire sheets were distributed to each
available respondent in Shanghai. Subsequently, 30 electronic
copies were emailed to other intended respondents who were
previously unavailable in Shanghai. Altogether 100 question-
naire sheets were sent to potential respondents in 11 qualified
large agencies, including three Shanghai-based public clients
and eight large desig n practices. Among the three local
clients, one was from the government sector and the other
two from the business sector. All were actively involved in a
number of high-profile LPBs including major building flagships
for Expo 2010. Among the eight large design practices, five
were based in Beijing and Shang hai and listed on The Top 60
Chinese Design Firms for 2008 (ERN, 2009b), with one ranked
in the top five and two in top 20. The three overseas firms
were also ranked among The Top 500 US-based Des ign Firms
for 2008 (ERN, 2009a). All eight firms had extensive experi-
ence in designing major LPBs in major Chinese cities. By the
end of March 2009, 65 replies (65% response rate) in hardcopy
or electronic version were returned, among which 57 were
regarded as valid and the rest eight were incomplete. Follow-
up enquires for more detailed explanations or clarifications to
the completed questionnaires were made afterwards.
3. Major findings
In line with the framework set out above, major findings are
reported in six parts below.
3.1. Profiles of respondents
Each of the 57 respondents was involved in at least one LPBP
between 2003 and 2009. R e spondents' profiles were studi ed in
Table 4 The questionnaire survey framework.
Aspect of concern Scope of inquiry
Part 1 (Q1–7)
Length of experience in the industry.
Occupation/specialty.
Educational level.
Recent involvement in LPBs.
Channels for programming education/training.
Respondent profile
Part 2 (Q8–14)
The demand of programming services.
The supply of programming services.
The prospect of programming services.
Major consequences of poorly-conducted programming.
The output of programming literature.
The provision of programming education.
Programming performance
Part 3 (Q15–18) Whether do respondents agree the following statements:
Programming should be added as a link between planning and design.
Programming is critical along the project cycle.
Programming has not yet gained enough attention it deserves.
An additional fee for the programming service shall be charged.
Awareness on programming
Part 4 (Q19–20)
Key factors influencing the outcome of a design competition.
Typical problems in a client's program.
Design competition and its programs
Part 5 (Q21–25)
Programming methods.
Programming benefits (short-term, long-term).
Formation of a program
Part 6 (Q26)
Project profile.
[location, type, scale, attribute (regular or event-led), length of formation period].
Client profile (ownership, experience, organization).
Competition format (scope, stage).
Frequency of significant program changes.
Communication approaches.
Fee issue of programming services.
Programming cases
Y. Deng, S.W. Poon226
fiveaspectsasspecified in Ta ble 4 . Figure 1 showsthat74%
respondents held senior positions at the time of the survey. Six
respondents (11%) claimed to have been handling 50 to over 100
LPBs. Figure 2 indicates the distribution of respondents by
occupation or speciality. Figure 3 demonstrates that 66%
received certain type of programming-related education or
training, while 34% never did. In terms of the source, 16%
received programming-related education from school education
while 23% obtained the knowledge from vocational training.
3.2. Professional practice in programming LPBs
P art 2 examines the supply-demand trends and the academic
and educational provision in architectural programming. Most
respondents (89%) agreed that the demand for programming
services was “on the rise” and the future market would be
“promising”. However, 58% thought that there was a lack of
quality professional services. Almost unanimously, 95% and 96%
considered that the provision of related literature and educa-
tion was insufficient. To further understand the impacts of
programming on the later stages, respondents were asked to
rank five possible consequences closely tied to the program-
ming process. Figure 4 ranks them by number of votes each
problem received. The result showed “major design revision”
ranking in the first place, followed by “outstanding cost
overrun”, “serious operational problem”, “serious cooperation
problems” and “serious construction delay”.
3.3. Awareness on programming
To investigate the awareness on programming among different
industrial players, opinions were sought r egarding the value,
status and fee of programming. As listed below, the four
statements were given for the correspondents' evaluation.
0
10
20
30
40
50
Client organization Design agency In total
Number of respondents
Senior position Non-senior position
Figure 1 Distribution of respondents by position.
Engineer
5%
Architect
30%
Programmer
3%
Project manager
12%
Urban planner
12%
Design manager
13%
Landscape
architect
4%
Client member
14%
Other
2%
Regulatory agency
officer
5%
Figure 2 Respondents distribution by job title/specialty.
Self-teaching
2%
Vocationa
l
training
23%
Lecture
3%
Designated
training
p
rogram
6%
School
education
16%
Never learnt
34%
Project
experience
11%
Consultation
3%
Reference
materials
2%
Figure 3 Distribution of programming learning channel (person-time).
227A questionnaire survey on programming large public buildings in China
Detailed results illustrated in Figure 5 indicated that 87% of
respondents supported all four statements as a whole.
Traditionally speaking, the whole project
cycle in the Mainland China can be
roughly phased into planning, design,
construction and occupancy. Do you
think programming should be added as
a connection link between planning
and design?
□
Strongly agree
□
Agree
□
Neutral
□
Disagree
□
Strongly
disagree
Do you think the process of programming
is critically important to the whole
project cycle?
□
Strongly agree
□
Agree
□
Neutral
□
Disagree
□
Strongly
disagree
Do you think programming is still
undervalued in the Mainland China's
construction industry?
□
Strongly agree
□
Agree
□
Neutral
□
Disagree
□
Strongly
disagree
Do you think there should be a separate
fee for the programming service
provided by professionals besides the
routine billing system?
□
Strongly agree
□
Agree
□
Neutral
□
Disagree
□
Strongly
disagree
3.4. Design competition and its program
This part includes the following two questions for respon-
dents to rank:
An open design competition is compulsory for a large-
scale public building as stipulated by the relevant law.
According to your own experience, how will the following
factors affect the competition outcome? Please rank
the applicable items in number by order of priority
(e.g., 1-most important, 10-least important).
□ Project/client prestige
□ Remuneration/prize money
□ Jury composition
□ Length of the tendering time
□ Design review process
□ Program quality
□ Other
A competition program serves as both the primary vehicle
for a design competition and the fundamental criteria for
evaluating competition entries. Have you encountered, or
have been given feedback on, any of the following problems
in a competition program for a large-scale public building
project? Please rank the applicable items in number by order
of priority (e.g., 1-most important, 10-least important).
□ Lack of site suitability or adequacy
□ Ignorant of, or in confl ict with regulatory planning
requirements
□ Too generic or too trivial in project requirements
□ Lack of priority, clarity or consistency in the occu-
pancy requirements
0
20
40
60
Major design
revision
Outstanding
cost overrun
Serious
operational
problem
Serious
cooperation
problem
Serious
construction
delay
Others
Number of votes
Figure 4 Ranking of programming-related consequences.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Number of votes
Added as a link
21 27 7 2 0
Viewed as critical
30 25 2 0 0
Still undervalued
15 34 6 2 0
Billed separately
24 23 7 3 0
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree
Strongly
disagree
Figure 5 Awareness of programming.
Y. Deng, S.W. Poon228
□ Only a space list, lack of specificity of the client's
idiographic values and objectives
□ Unachievable budget or inadequate cost estimation
□ Unachievable project schedule
□ Insufficient required gross floor area (GFA) resulted
from miscalculation or inconsideration of net-to-gross
area ratios of different building types
□ Other
For the first question, accordingly to the number of votes
illustrated in Figure 6, the first-choice ranking is as follows:
1 “Program quality ”
2 “Project/client prestige”
3 “Jury composition
3 “Design review process”
4 “Remuneration/prize reward”
5 “Bidding time”
For the second question, by order of the first-choice,
eight most frequent problems are:
1 Too generic or too trivial in project requirements.
2 Lack of priority, clarity or consistency in the occupancy
requirements.
3 Lack of site suitability or adequacy.
4 Ignorant of, or in conflict with regulatory planning
requirements.
5 Only a space list, lack of the client's idiographic values
and objectives.
6 Unachievable budget or inadequate cost estimation.
7 Insufficient gross floor area by the client resulted from
miscalculation or inconsideration of net-to-gross area
ratios of different building types.
8 Unachievable project schedule.
3.5. Formation of the program
When asked whether the professionals should provide
assistance to their clients at the programming stage, an
overwhelming majority (91%) responded positively. Among
the three given reasons, 81% respondents agreed that by
doing so, it could realize the objective to “better determine
the client's requirements to assure design efficiency and
quality”; while 53% considered this could “build up a long-
term reciprocal relationship with the client” and “help win
the trust and respect from the client, thus having greater
say in the process of design decision making”. With regard
to the issue of programming methods, the ranking of six
given choices by order of popularity is shown in Figure 7.
“Study visit” was on the top while “literature search”
ranked at the bottom. About 2% respondents chose their
own ways including external consultations of governmental
or professional agencies, market analysis, multiple-scheme
comparison and selection.
Interestingly, both similar and contradictory results were
recorded in this survey and the Preiser's (1993). In both
cases, “literature search” was ranked the lowest in actual
usage. The insufficient provisions in research and education
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Number of votes
Program quality
17 6 9 5 8 6
Project/client prestige
15 5 8 3 9 7 4
Jury composition
12 10 5 16 8 3
Design review process
12 9 9 8 7 7
Remueration/prize reward
4796 9123
Bidding time
31311115 7
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th
Figure 6 Ranking of factors affecting the outcome of a design competition.
229A questionnaire survey on programming large public buildings in China
in China partially explained its unpopularity in this survey.
Furthermore, “study visit to similar projects” ranked the
most popular method in this survey but the least popular in
Preiser's (1993). A possible explanation for this is that, in
China, such visits are normally arranged by the clients and
their designers together after the awarding of design
contracts. These field trips can provide good opportunities
for the clients to get a feel of those built products of similar
nature by seeing, walking around and listening to the
opinions from the current users and facility managers or
even the original consultants and project managers. In turn,
the designers are also able to better understand their
clients' requirements and preference with the presence of
real built products. The mutually beneficial nature of this
method may also help strengthen the client-designer rela-
tionship at the early stages.
3.6. Programming cases
To identify pressing challenges faced by the current prac-
tices, the questions in the last part of the survey were
designed to draw out information on LPBs with respondents'
own inputs. The 90 projects provided by respondents were
mainly developed between 2000 and 2009. They were
located in 25 mega- and medium-cities, among which 65%
came from four municipalities—Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai
and Chongqing. Many projects were high-profile on local,
national or international scales. About one third of the 90
projects were led by various events including the Beijing
2008 Olympics and the Shanghai 2010 Expo. New construc-
tion, conversion and extension accounted for 79%, 12% and
9% respectively. Those with a total floor area of 50,000 m
2
or above accounted for 74%. Sixteen types of LPBs were
recorded, among which 56% were mixed-use, ranging from
two to four combinations of the basic types in the official
definition of LPBs. Among the 90 projects, government and
corporation clients accounted for 97% in the 90 projects.
Half of the LPBs were developed by first-time clients, while
47% were either developed by either experienced or reg-
ular/repeated clients (Figure 8). With regard to organiza-
tional structure, 81% clients were single-headed and 19%
multiple-headed. Eight-eight projects (98%) were procured
through design competitions, among which 64% were invited
competitions. International and domestic competitions
almost equaled each other in the 88 cases.
In terms of the billing issue of programming, about 30% of
the 90 programming services were billed, either as part of
the design service or as a separate consulting service. This
was in sharp contrast with the result that 82% respondents
supported the institutionalization of billing the program-
ming service separately. The division indicated that pro-
gramming was still undervalued by the market. In terms of
the composition of the programming team, Figure 9 reflects
the ranking of its members by frequency of presence.
Results show that “Client representative” (78%) came in
the first place, while “Architect ” (76%) scored much higher
than other professionals such as urban planner, Building
economist and Engineer. Worth noting is that “User repre-
sentative” ranked fairly low at a 14% presence rate.
4. Discussions and conclusions
This explorative questionnaire survey revealed some sig-
nificant gaps between the best and real practices in
programming LPBs. The results are summarized in Table 5.
Furthermore, the following three findings also deserve due
attention from the industry as well as its regulators.
(1) Fee issue. Seventy percent of programming services were
not paid in the 90 LPBs under survey; suggesting much
fewer clients were willing to pay the bill, no matter how
insignificant the amount can be. This reality check posed an
0
20
40
60
Study visit to
similar
projects
Client
interview
Data
analysis
Site Survey User survey
Literature
search
Others
Number of votes
Figure 7 Frequency of programming methods in use.
First-time
50%
Experienced
16%
Regular or repeated
+Experienced
1%
Unidentified
1%
First-time+Experienced
1%
Regular or repeated
31%
Figure 8 Distribution of the 90 surveyed LPBs by nature of clients.
Y. Deng, S.W. Poon230
interesting contrast to another finding that most respon-
dents acknowledged the significanceofprogramming.
(2) User participation. The result showed that user repre-
sentatives were much less involved in the programming
process than eight out of 14 identified types of partici-
pants. Coupled with the lack of post-occupation evalua-
tion mechanism, this might partially explain why a
significant portion of LPBs, according to the MoHURD's
report (2008), did not function well beyond only a few
years of operations.
(3) Demand-supply mismatch. The survey also revealed a
shortage of well-trained professionals to provide quality
programming services. Although perceived as a growth
area by most respondents, conventional wisdom still
holds that it would not necessarily attract monetary
rewards
in practice. A fundamental reason was that that there
appeared no real incentive to encourage the profes-
sionals to enhance their performances given the current
non-profitable nature of programming services.
Despite the imposing of tougher regulations from the
government side since 2007, feedback from a predominant
majority of respondents in 2009 suggested that the industry
still reacted with skepticism about the feasibility of the
Table 5 Comparison between the best and real practices.
Issues in the
early stages
The best practice The real practice
Client's program The client shall seek experts' advice, clarify project
requirements, and determine critical technical and
economic parameters.
The top two ranked problems in a competition
program:
Too generic or too trivial in project
requirements.
Lack of priority, clarity or consistency in the
occupancy requirements.
Schematic
design
The schematic design shall conform to approved master
plan, detailed regulatory plan of the specific site, and
urban design of the site.
The 3rd and 4th ranked problems of competition
programs:
Lack of site suitability/adequacy.
Ignorant of, or in conflict with regulatory
planning requirements.
Format of
design
competition
Domestic rather than international competitions shall be
the first choice for clients.
Actual ratio between international and domestic
competitions was 48%: 51%.
For highest profile design competitions,
international competitions have become a
norm.
Review of design
competition
entries
Open and transparent procedures shall be devised for the
process, while the requirements and accountability of
jury shall be clarified.
There was a lack of a clearly-defi ned review
procedure and evaluation criteria in the
competition program.
0
20
40
60
80
Client representative
Architect
Urban planner
Building economist
Project manager
Engineer
External programmer
Design manager
User representative
Landscape architect
Contractor/ Subcontractor
Broker
Leasing consultant
Government officer
Unidentified
Types of participants
Times of presence
Figure 9 Ranking of programming team members by frequency of presence in the 90 surveyed LPBs.
231A questionnaire survey on programming large public buildings in China
advocated best practice. According to the survey's results,
programming services for LPBs were underpaid and under-
valued among the surveyed top-tier industry players. There
appeared virtually no incentive to challenge the conven-
tional wisdom that the designing process, rather than the
programming process, would more easily bring a sense of
achievement and more concrete rewards to both the clients
and professionals. This would certainly discourage the
clients from giving more considerations to the user require-
ments or prevent the professionals from investing more in
providing quality programming services. Although it was not
the intention of this small-scale survey to cover all issues of
programming LPBs in China, an important message conveyed
here is that an effective mechanism for catalyzing a
mentality shift among industry players has to be worked
out apart from a policy shift from the government sector.
Given the multidimensional impacts of programming on
the long-term performances of LPBs and the capacity short-
falls in delivering quality programming services among pro-
fessionals, it becomes imperative to develop a concrete
package of implementation tools to translate the desirable
aims into clearly measurable rules and regulations. In view of
the persisting nature of the problems identified, more
broader-scale work needs to be carried out to help the
government regulators to better understand the real picture
of professional practice and to formulate effective incentives
and action plans to develop the industry's related capacities.
Such research will facilitate the comparison between the
current practices in China and international best practices
and the identification of the most concentrated problem
areas. Based on these accumulative studies, specific bench-
marks and measures in delivering quality programming
services can be set out for trial implementation in major
cities under pilot programs to check and improve feasibility
and efficiency by the government regulators. This would
eventually accelerate the desired paradigmatic shift in the
whole industry. By then, professionals and clients will be
more willing to invest time and efforts in better programming
towards more responsible and sustainable LPBs.
Acknowledgements
The authors are deeply grateful for the generous support
and invaluable inspiration for this survey from respondents
and referees amid their extremely busy agendas.
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