ABSTRACT
Models provide us with a way of looking at things in order to understand them. In the building process they can take many forms and provide many different views. It can be argued that drawings themselves are a form of model. So too is a cost plan. The first looks at spatial arrangement, the second at the costs involved. The problems experienced in building design and construction practice have many causes, lack of timely information and co-ordination of everyone’s efforts being one of many. Fundamental to these causes is an underlying one of divided knowledge about the total process and product to be realized. The prime cause of this situation and the ways of addressing it practically are dealt with in different ways Chapters 3 and 4. The purpose of this chapter is to address the situation conceptually, because this concerns the way people think about something, and how they think about something will determine their attitudes towards their involvement in any process with which it is concerned. The ‘something’ in question is of course buildings and their design and construction.
