Assessment of complexity factors in briefing stage of refurbishment projects in Malaysia

In Malaysia, building refurbishment is fast becoming an important sector in the construction industry. Refurbishment projects are generally characterised to be of higher risk, more complex and needs greater coordination than new build. As briefing stage is one of the main source of design information, meeting the clients' requirements in briefing stage and working within the complexities of existing building may pose a difficult task to produce the required information for designers to start design. Quality of required design information in refurbishment projects is affected by level of complexity factors in briefing stage. Affected design information is one of the considerable factors, which leads to refurbishment projects performance failure. Therefor this research aim is to assess the level of potential complexity factors in briefing stage of refurbishment projects that hinder designers to acquire the required information to start design. This research employs the quantitative approach, that is, a questionnaire survey targeted at experienced architects and interior designers involved in refurbishment projects within Klang valley area to provide the data in investigating the level of complexities in briefing stage of refurbishment projects. The result indicated that the key complexities in briefing stage of refurbishment projects can be divided into three main categories; Lack of document, Project characteristic and Client's characteristic.