Building Systems and Flexibility: Developing a Conceptual Cost Analysis Framework for Office Buildings

Flexibility of physical environment in workplaces is animportant issue for designers and facility managers in order tounderstand the implications of any change. This paper develops aconceptual framework for the notion of workplace flexibility.Building systems which represent the physical elements of theworkplace are categorized in terms of shell, scenery, services and set.Flexibility is conceptualized in terms of ease to change, and isassociated with cost. Most of the research in literature dealt withflexibility in its theoretical concept. This research tried to attachquantitative measures to the concept of flexibility. Three types ofchange related to cost were developed in association with bothperformance and time. These are costs of replacement, improvementand movement. The paper claims that through understanding the threetypes of cost which represent level of flexibility of the physicalelements, organizations and designers could select the mostappropriate choice of change. Indicators for flexibility andeffectiveness were developed. Results of analyzing the three types ofchange according to the developed framework when applied to airconditioning ducts system in Jaffali office building in Jeddah showvariation of flexibility level at different level of change. However,replacement of the whole ducts system are found to be the mostexpensive choice, whereas improvement of the system is the mosteffective choice. The paper suggests that such approach could beeasily applied to different building systems, as it becomes a helpfultool for designers and managers to resolve the problem of flexibility.