The role of civil engineering professionals within the housing environment in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The development of mass housing is an excellent example of multi-disciplinary projects.Several housing projects have been unsuccessful due to a misunderstanding of the necessarycollaboration and buy-in that are required from all parties concerned. The focus of this studyis to identify the required skill sets and responsibilities of the Housing Project Manager in theHousing environment, and in turn, will support the development of the foundation of the civilengineering postgraduate curricula. Civil engineers are educated with a strong focus ontechnical subjects, but not much attention is paid to many of the less technical aspects asfound in housing projects. Furthermore, the multi-disciplinary aspects of large projects do notreceive sufficient attention in either the undergraduate or postgraduate curricula.Considering that many civil engineers become actively involved as managers of housingprojects, this paper will present an investigation into the requirements of the curricula of apostgraduate qualification for civil engineers towards becoming managers in housingprojects. The investigation will include aspects of multi-disciplinary coordination, the lesstechnical aspects of housing development, but will not exclude a comprehension of technicalinvolvement.In order to identify these skill sets and responsibilities several approaches were adopted. Theapproaches adopted in this dissertation include: (i) a comprehensive literature study regardingthe housing environment and the position of the housing project manager, (ii) a review ofseveral housing case studies with project management related problems, (iii) consulting withseveral housing management professionals from different sectors in the housing industry, and(iv) a review of existing formulations of the role and responsibilities of the housing projectmanager.The findings from this study provide evidence that civil engineers operating in the housingenvironment as project managers require additional education, due to the multi-disciplinarynature of housing projects. The main conclusion drawn from this study is that educating civilengineers towards the management of housing projects would contribute significantly to thehousing environment through increasing productivity and quality, and can contribute to meetthe housing targets of the government.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University