An outline of the design and construction process

As I described in the previous posts, the procurement of new buildings takes place in a variety of alternative ways, including:

•    Speculatively
By a developer on an entrepreneurial basis for unknown clients or occupants who have no specific involvement in the design or construction processes.

•    Design and build
By a developer who provides all necessary design and construction expertise to a specific client based on negotiation or competitive tender.

•    Project management
By a manager who does not have any direct, personal involvement in the building works, but co-ordinates the design and construction teams on behalf of a specific client.

•    Consultant management
By a contractor for a specific client based on information provided by consultants, who may also supervise construction.

•    Private finance initiative
By a contractor or a consortium of contractors who finance the development for a specific client who subsequently rents or leases back the building when it is completed. This method may also include a facilities management contract to maintain the building in use for an agreed period of time.

•    Partnering
By several separate companies, or client and developer together, combining their expertise and financial resources in a joint venture.

Innovation in design and the design process

Design and the design process may be difficult terms to define but they clearly involve ‘thinking’, and apart from the most mundane, mechanical problems, creative thoughts which sometimes lead to changes in the way those things have been done before. The design and construction of buildings has continually evolved as ‘new’ materials and processes have enabled the creation of ‘new’ structures. Even vernacular styles of architecture include useful developments when they become generally accepted. Such advances can be described as innovative, considered at the following different levels:

The design process - The aims of design

From the outset of a new project, the designer’s preliminary work can be based on very limited information which may be sufficient to justify putting forward ideas for consideration. However, it is very unusual to find that the finished design materializes effortlessly, translating initial ideas into reality without any revision.

Process is one of the principle elements of any product

The principle elements of any product are materials, processes, forms and appearance, each influenced by numerous factors within three broad areas of concern. Marketing analysis and brand understanding help to determine what the product should or could be like in an ideal situation, technical constraints reflect controlling standards and realistic investment costs and commercial viability assesses the potential for sales and profit. The response of clients, designers, manufacturers and users depends on their perception and evaluation of the importance of any particular factor, which will of course, not necessarily be the same as each other.

The best design solution

In a sense, it is a circular process, repeatedly rotating through each stage, but rather than returning to the same point in the cycle, if the rotations take the form of a decreasing spiral, then it can be seen that progress leads closer to the centre. It would be meaningless to imagine the process as a target with the bulls-eye as the perfect design solution, as for any brief there could be many equally valid alternative proposals, and every designer could produce a different response to the same set of circumstances. However, the centre can be regarded as the best design solution that could be achieved under the circumstances. If the spiral took the form of a maze, then reaching the centre would depend on the starting position and wrong decisions at turning points would lead to dead ends. Progress could only be made by retracing earlier steps and starting again. As most building design contains compromise, a good designer tries to get as close to the centre of the target as possible, or has to stop when time runs out.

The design process

It can be argued that trying to meet these aims is a process demanding logic; an intellectual, rational review of the matter, but it is by no means clear that this is how all, or any designers work in practice. Much has been written about brainstorming, mind mapping and even daydreaming as ways in which unexpected, apparently illogical design solutions appear. However, in many cases, the design development process involves the following actions.

The aims of design

From the outset of a new project, the designer’s preliminary work can be based on very limited information which may be sufficient to justify putting forward ideas for consideration. However, it is very unusual to find that the finished design materialises effortlessly, translating initial ideas into reality without any revision. This quote from Karl Popper ‘An Evolutionary Approach’ sums up the situation concisely:

Introduction Building Design

The design and construction of the new car-dealership involves people who fulfil generally understood roles and have professional relationships with one another throughout the duration of the project. Their purposes vary substantially from the creatively proactive to the incidentally supervisory, often taking individualistic views about what is appropriate under the circumstances. The first section of this book reviews the nature and process of design, and outlines the essential skills and potential contributions of the members of the design and construction teams as they communicate ideas and instructions to each other. The section concludes with a summary of the extensive legal constraints governing the design, construction and occupation of new buildings in the UK.