Constructibility 6- Towards a more efficient Construction cycle.

"Of all acts, the most complete is that of building." Paul Valery

The concept of constructibility was introduced in France at the same time as the launch of the Institut de recherche en constructibilité (IRC), in 2010.

From the outset, a clear distinction was made with the Anglo-Saxon terms "constructability" and "buildability":

• The term "constructability" refers to all the organizational and technical resources needed to successfully complete a construction project;

• the term "buildability" refers more specifically to technologies enabling the production of buildings, and is more often used by British experts.

In fact, the French expression was intended to mark the perimeter of a questioning process that is both broader and more specialized. The aim is to help anticipate the production difficulties inherent in any decision at any stage of a project.

Complementarity with all construction disciplines has been sought. The aim is to enrich them from a dynamic point of view, never to replace them.

It's no doubt this deliberate positioning that makes access to them rather complicated, when the majority of professionals are first and foremost absorbed by a habitual activity that some refer to as BAU (Business As Usual).

The purpose of this article is precisely to review the constituent elements of constructibility and to present its advantages when deployed. In so doing, we hope to foster a better understanding of the concept and recognition of the corresponding discipline.

To confirm these allegations, two steps will be followed:

• the first involves observing constructibility from an operative point of view. What does it act on? How does it work? How does it develop?

• the second asks what makes it tick. What does it obey? Under what conditions is it possible to derive maximum benefit? What drives it?

In fact, this mode of analysis is in line with the approach favored in industrial engineering, which distinguishes two dimensions to any methodology, namely :

• its consistency (the expected product) ;

• its procedure (the implementation project).

This complementarity of viewpoints makes it easier to understand the intricacy of the elements mobilized to form the fabric of this concept.

But, like industrial engineering, constructability does not yet have a recognized academic status. In view of this, this article...