Technological Development in Construction: Preaching to the Converted or Seducing the Disbelievers

The paper analyses the successes and failures of the transfer of technical innovations into the Dutch construction industry. When in the nineteen-seventies calcium silicate stone was introduced as the basis for a new construction technology, it rapidly became the material of choice for housing construction in The Netherlands. More recently the Dutch government has been promoting timber frame construction as a sustainable alternative to conventional construction methods. The adoption of this method by the industry, however, is slow. The paper argues that differences in technology transfer practices in both sectors account for the differences in their relative success. It views technology transfer as a result of alignment processes between technical configuration and social effects; or, in other words, between form and function of a technology. Alignment, then, is not a purely technical matter. It involves tension and interaction between insiders and outsiders of a network; between those who develop, those who build, those who regulate, and those who use a technology. By describing and analysing these processes of alignment in the timber frame and calcium silicate stone construction sectors in the Netherlands, the paper aims to understand to what extent the adoption of construction methods can be anticipated and how it might be advanced. PROLOGUE: PREACHING TO THE CONVERTED Wednesday, June 21, 2000, 11:00 AM, in the Van der Valk Hotel at Schiphol, Piet van Houten, project leader at the Centrum Hout (the Wood Center), welcomes participants to the yearly Dutch Timber Frame Construction Day. The Wood Center promotes public education, research, and knowledge transfer, in order to foster the responsible use of wood in the housing construction industry. In the morning, the participants will visit two construction sites. In the afternoon, presentations will show the timber frame method from the point of view of the architect, the commissioner, the resident, and the supplier. By 5:00 PM, at the reception, I witness a discussion between Piet van Houten and Siebe Huizinga. For a year now Siebe has been organizing excursions to timber frame construction sites in Aalsmeer and in Alphen – two fast-growing cities in the green heart of the Netherlands. Siebe wonders why so few people from housing associations, and hardly any real estate developers or construction companies are attending the timber frame day. They are, after all, the principal players who make the decisions about which construction methods to use in new building projects. According to Piet large construction firms and the associated real estate developers are not a crucial group to target because they have a “pavlovian response towards concrete” anyway. Siebe points out that: “the architects who are here today already know about the aesthetic and design advantages of timber framing and the people who are now having drinks here are employees of timber frame construction companies who know about the technical characteristics of their products. Today the timber frame sector has been preaching to the converted.”