Designer's Perception of Safe Design and its Potential for Innovation

Abstract

Safe design to influence construction and maintenance worker safety is a concept that has been around for many years in the United Kingdom and Australia. The concept is that designers can influence the safety of the project during the design phase. This study aims to determine whether designers consider this concept an aid or a hindrance. The extent to which safe design is implemented, its timing within the design process, and the tools and processes employed could well be related to designers' perceptions. If the designers' fundamental tenet is their technological and intellectual disposition to prepare and execute safe designs then the core question has to be, do designers view safe design as a pleasure or a pain? This study will focus on designers from the United Kingdom and Australia since `design safety' legislation has been implemented there for several years and both jurisdictions provide an element of guidance on safe design practices. The purpose of the study is to determine if thinking about worker safety in the design process enables or restricts innovation and creativity in the design process. The analysis will compare safe design approaches in the two regions to see if there is any correlation between them. The thoughts and practices of designers from the both countries are explored to determine, among other things, their perceptions of the value of safe design. The primary methodology for this study is a questionnaire, followed up with a more detailed interview, conducted on a sample group, comprising design engineers and architects across a range of industries, with differing levels of experience. The expectation is to find some innovations that stem from the safe design process. The expected results could impact the view of safe design and safe design regulation, particularly useful in the year that United Kingdom is reviewing its approach to regulating construction, design and management. In the United States there are no such safe design regulations in the foreseeable future. However, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has a safe design initiative, and these results could provide insight to the concept's adoption in the United States.