A thematic review on Prevention through design (PtD) concept application in the construction industry of developing countries

The life cycle of the building or any other type of structure comprises the stages of planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance until demolition. The life span of each stage is different and the operation and maintenance stages account for the longest period in a building's lifespan. On that account, building performance after its completion is foremost to corroborate the Prevention through Design (PtD) concept. PtD, also known as safety by design or design for safety, is the concept of reducing the potential occupational hazards beforehand during the design stage. The developing countries have also started practicing this concept. A systematic review has been used as a methodology to overview the applications of this concept in the construction industry in developing countries. The study identified 218 peer-reviewed articles from a keyword search in online databases. The search process for the articles was filtered by inclusion and exclusion criteria. In the result, a total of 16 articles were identified. The ATLAST.ti 8 was utilised to conduct the theme analysis review of the final articles. A conceptual framework of cluster patterns on the PtD applications for construction industry in the developing countries has been developed. The framework is themed into 5 main pattern clusters: (1) Building life cycle, (2) Legislation, (3) Design, (4) Building Information Modelling (BIM), and (5) Project management (PM); from 10 clusters: (1) Law and regulations, (2) Guidelines, (3) BIM, (4) Architectural design, (5) Planning stage, (6) Construction stage, (7) Operation and maintenance stage, (8) PM, (9) Designer's knowledge and (10) Designer's attitude. Hence, this paper incorporates the very latest information on PtD concept application in the con-struction industry of developing countries. The main finding of this paper reveals that the PtD concept is vital to enforcing the legislation to improve building performance and reduce the possible hazards that lead to accidents

Automated summary

This study examines the application of Prevention through Design (PtD) concept in the construction industry of developing countries through a systematic review. The findings reveal that PtD is crucial for enforcing legislation to improve building performance and reduce potential hazards.