Construction process is undertaking major changes. New IT-tools like BIM (building information modelling) change the process of planning. Life cycle engineering raises awareness that projects lasts long and have to adapt to changes indicated through our short-lived world without diminishing in value. The majority of life cycle costs of projects is due in the operating phase. This applies for real estate, industry, and infrastructure equally. The life cycle cost optimisation of construction projects is a further area of research and still at its beginning. In IT agile processes have been the response to the challenge of quality and efficiency. In the construction industry, also research will show that agile processes are the solution to the challenges of the future.
LCCO (life cycle cost optimisation) is a research topic which is attended by a dissertation. The mutual impact between projects and processes in the phases of development, planning, implementation, and operation is subject to another dissertation. The research topic therefore is PIM (project information management). Also the new industrial revolution (keyword industry 4.0) will affect the construction industry. The third research focus is on innovative models for tendering, allocation, contract, and accounting (Ausschreibung, Vergabe, Vertrag und Abrechnung – AVVA). Gradually, it becomes aware that the “confrontative construction process“ of the last decades will not lead to success. Under the title “alliance contract management“ we develop new types of cooperative construction processes in cooperation with experts from economy and law.
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