Constructing Innovation: How Large-Scale Projects Drive Novelty in the Construction Industry

The construction sector is not exactly known for its innovation. Also, the reputation of large-scale projects builds less on their capacity to generate novelty than on their likelihood to fail in terms of project managements performance indicators of time and cost. And yet, throughout the history of construction, the sector has regularly experienced the introduction of novel technologies and techniques, often advanced through large-scale projects such as the Eiffel Tower or Sydney Opera House. This book seeks to shed light on this aspect of large-scale construction projects. The volume contains the results of an interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars from the social sciences and construction engineering. Through six indepth case studies comprising recent large-scale construction projects in Germany, chapters take different disciplinary and conceptual premises to explore the contribution these projects have made in generating and dispersing innovations.