Iran is an industrial country that remains engulfed in the Second Industrial Revolution, as far as its construction industry is concerned.
Even the basic structure or production process of buildings is stuck in traditional and pre-industrial frameworks, showing no substantial benefits of industrial production, said Abdolreza Farid Naeeni, a member of the Association of Mass Housing Builders of Tehran Province, in an article for the Persian-language weekly Ayandehnegar, a publication of Tehran Chamber of Commerce. A translation of the text follows:
Low productivity and quality have robbed us of competitiveness. High costs, slow pace of construction projects, long period of return on investment (six to eight times the world standards) and a widespread non-compliance with national regulations have undermined the credibility of Iran’s construction industry.
Safety, the most important concern of the engineering community, has not been addressed for the past seven decades. Crisis-prone areas have become centers of population. Such negligence has cost many lives and national assets. This is while Iran’s construction industry enjoys the comparative advantage of a large engineering community (with more than half a million members) with up-to-date knowledge and the ability to effect change in the construction process.
However, traditional methods of construction impede the development of construction industry and prevent the building engineering community from taking advantage of innovations and creativity.
Historical Perspective
In the 1970s, Iran’s construction industry was moving toward industrial development within hailing distance of developed countries by attracting the cooperation of global tech companies and implementing diverse projects in an industrial manner in a short time. It was ranked fifth in the world for the growth of the industrial construction coefficient of buildings.
Plans for industrial production provided a platform for the flourishing of innovation and creativity of young architects. For example, the world’s second-largest residential complex in the world at that time, i.e., Ekbatan Town in western Tehran, was developed by a young architect from scratch.
After the Islamic Revolution, with the change in housing development policies, the process of industrial development temporarily came to a halt. It was necessary to safeguard the motivation for industrial development as the top priority of the construction sector and the valuable experiences of the 1970s.
The inefficiency of the government and engineering community drove a wedge between these experiences and the engineering community, depriving the latter of having a developmental perspective in the construction sector. They even failed to have theoretical discussions regarding industrial development and inevitably, the engineering community became alienated from the current developments in the international building production process.
The engineering organizations learned to expect everything from the government and because they didn’t have a systemic development perspective, development issues were not among their demands. Therefore, during that period, no effective steps were taken for bringing about a fundamental change in the process of construction and industrial development; even essential infrastructures were not provided.
Real-estate development was stalled in traditional and pre-industrial conditions. The university system was not sufficiently effective in terms of scientific and educational support for the process of industrial development.
Crisis of Underdevelopment
Today our construction industry is facing a crisis of underdevelopment. The real-estate development process belongs to the distant past. On the surface, our construction industry might seem to be enjoying the use of emerging construction industries but underneath, it is suffering from an ugly underdevelopment and inefficiency.
The construction sector suffers from a lack of strategic development plans and this has created countless problems regarding construction infrastructures. The labor force lacks a comprehensive expertise; building materials and services don’t comply with mandatory standards; the quality control system dates back to the First World War; and the service delivery structure is traditional and inefficient.
In addition, it also suffers from long-term inaction on the part of the government and the engineering community, and their failure to pay attention to the requisites for industrial housing production, including having a comprehensive plan for industrial housing development, strategic plans and executive plans.
Public Housing Experience
A very favorable platform for practical industrial production was provided when public housing projects, especially the government-sponsored Mehr Housing Plan, received significant resources and the government supported the industrial production of housing.
At first it seemed that the engineering community was approaching its goal, but due to the lack of infrastructures and prerequisites, those involved in the plan did not reach a common understanding. Surprisingly, consulting engineers distanced themselves from the Mehr Housing Plan and a historic opportunity for a fundamental change in the construction process was missed.
Lack of planning, unprepared platforms and lack of cooperation among consulting engineers and designers, and the absence of an academic system eventually led to the failure of government in the industrial production of housing, such that after the construction of more than two million housing units, no presentable experience is available and industrial production is still in limbo.
In a similar project, one of Iran’s neighboring countries to the west managed to construct 250,000 residential units under a mass housing project and prepare the grounds for industrial real-estate development and earn significant revenues by exporting its construction services to regional and global markets.
However, Iran, despite having much more experience and motivation, has not been able to take major steps in the industrial construction industry. What are the reasons behind this failure?
- Lack of a systemic development perspective, particularly in the real-estate sector;
- Lack of strategic planning, including the comprehensive plan for industrial construction;
- Lack of theoretical discussions regarding industrial development among members of the engineering community;
- Lack of accountability and idealism;
- And, the government and the engineering community’s lack of initiatives and their comforting in old routines.
This has firstly been a hurdle in the way of conducting a comparative analysis between what’s going on in other countries and Iran regarding industrial production, despite the fact that economic globalization and free international competitive is before us. Secondly, obsession with old routines has been a stumbling block to planning and executing fundamental projects like industrial real-estate development as well as vital small-scale projects such as modular coordination system, incorporating green and sustainable building standards and modernizing service delivery structures, especially for streamlining of construction infrastructures.
On top of that, the technical executive system governing the design and construction process is a traditional system and has blocked the way for any kind of creativity and innovation. All these have led to the underdevelopment of the construction industry.
Lack of Development Planning
Despite constant warnings issued by architects’ associations, the government has not taken any steps to draw up a comprehensive plan for the industrial development of the construction industry. Its negligence has paralyzed a large part of the economy because housing is a flagship and strategic sector of the Iranian economy, such that stagnation in this industry impacts other sectors.
Besides the government, the country’s large civil engineering community, with more than half a million members and consulting engineers’ associations, is also responsible for development planning in this sector.
Today, the provision of housing for the low and middle-income deciles has turned into a crisis. Obsession with old routines and short-term plans cannot resolve this serious crisis.
We have access to the diverse experiences of developed countries in the 1930s to 1970s and the extraordinary developments since then, plus our own experiences. We have all the resources needed for the industrial development of the construction industry.
A national determination and strategic plans, together with formulating a comprehensive construction development plan, will take us to places.
Experts who look at construction from the perspective of development believe that industrial development of real-estate should be the top priority of national development.
Economic globalization is a symbol of post-industrial society. Developed countries started mass industrial production at the beginning of the 20th century and achieved extraordinary records in terms of production goals. By the end of the century, they moved past mass and industrial production; they have turned to post-industrial production.
In the 1970s, Iran was the fifth country in the world in terms of growth in industrial construction coefficient.
At present, the country is stuck in a crisis of underdevelopment and has no plans for industrial housing production.
Opportunities are few and fleeting. The slackness of the government and the engineering community resulted in the gradual alienation of directors and engineers from having a development perspective toward the industrial development of construction industry.
