KEYNOTE ADDRESS A Unified Building Control System: Who Benefits and Who Controls the Controllers?

Abstract

Construction work constitutes some 10–12 per cent of the gross national domestic product in most countries. It is thus generally the largest single sector of industrial activity in all developed countries and in most developing countries. This is not a surprising conclusion, for the construction industry is the main provider of the most basic, primordial need of man, apart from food — shelter. Building is therefore an old-established, highly traditional activity that is conditioned by regional and local influences and bound by a variety of cultural, social, climatic, as well as technical parameters. These have always varied widely from one area to another, depending clearly on such prevailing conditions as the natural resources available (for example, materials, energy sources), the environmental conditions (for example, climatic variations, water resources), human skills, and the level of technical development and cultural predisposition.