Author's Notes about the Origin of Coop Constr.

This general concept of Cooperation being a new organizing principle for construction or other large projects, was developed while I was a Masters Candidate in Architecture at CalPoly San Luis Obispo, in 2012 through 2014.  I discovered that Cooperation was an organizing concept for certain set of new school projects built in California in the period.   Utilizing the "Lease-Leaseback" school construction funding system many school districts developed innovative contracting techniques.  That certain method of funding created an open environment where cooperative styles of association flourished.  I interviewed 54 people in the school construction industry and found that cooperation was fostered in hundreds of ways.  The vast majority of these efforts were highly successful. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)  and Lean Construction techniques were utilized to develop project teams with many shared elements of design, coordination and production.  

Since then, I have been studying the concept of cooperation in general and the North American construction market in general.  Many market segments, primarily hospitals and high-tech, are utilizing cooperative techniques, again focussed on IPD or Lean.  To focus precisely cooperation and its utilization, I studied "The Evolution of Cooperation" by William Axelrod, the fundamental treatise of Game Theory.  Lately, I have studied "Together" by Robert Sennett.  This book is the pinnacle of academic research into cooperation itself.  Both of these books show cooperation as a defining characteristic of all human interaction.