Design and Build Defined: Samir Boudjabeur
Design and Build Defined: Samir Boudjabeur
Design and Build Defined: Samir Boudjabeur
Samir Boudjabeur
Department of Surveying, University of Salford, Salford M7 9NU, UK
Boudjabeur, S (1997) Design and build defined. In: Stephenson, P (Ed.), 13th Annual ARCOM
Conference, 15-17 September 1997, King's College, Cambridge. Association of Researchers in
Construction Management, Vol. 1, 72-82.
Design and build defined
73
Boudjabeur
74
Design and build defined
client opting for these two varieties is experienced, well informed and has enough
knowledge about the construction industry as a whole and design and build in
particular, and also has or engage a relatively full design team for the production of
design. Whereas, in the remaining two varieties (design and manage and package
deal), the client is involved in relatively little design, and it is the contractor who is
responsible for the principal part of the design. Therefore, the client rarely employs a
design team in these two varieties, however, he/she may engage a consultant to assist
him/her in the evaluation process, and to check the contractor’s design drawings as
they develop through the course of the contract.
Hence, the different varieties might be distinguished as “client-led design” (develop
and construct and novation) and “contractor-led design” (design and manage and
package deal). However, in the case of the client-led design varieties, one might argue
that, the advantages of design and build are partially lost because, for example, the
responsibility for design becomes more complex and the designs that are more fully
worked out limit the possible utilisation of the contractor’s expertise.
Moreover, the design and build contractors offering the above varieties vary in terms
of their organisation; design and construction expertise which they offer. The majority
of contractors offering design and build services were existing building contractors.
Some of them formed their own design departments, taking on designers as direct
employees. Others, kept their traditional organisation and employed external designer
on a job to job basis. Rowlinson, 1988, from evidence collected during case studies of
individual projects, classified the design and build organisations under three broad
categories, namely: Pure design and build, Integrated design and build and
Fragmented design and build. However, in this study, the different design and build
organisations are classified into two broad fold, namely:
1. In-house design team: This category strives for holism, a complete and self-
contained organisation where, all the necessary design and construction
expertise resides with one organisation and this is sufficient to complete any
task that arises. Such an organisation would be well equipped to offer one of
the two “contractor-led design” varieties (design and manage and package
deal).
2. External (without an in-house) design team: As the name implies, in this
category, the organisation takes a less than holistic approach where the
organisation might have only a quite small design group whose task is to take
the client brief and then appoint external consultants to develop the design. In
this category, the organisation would be appropriate for one of the two “client-
led design” varieties (develop and construct and novation).
However, although there are a number of varieties of design and build and different
categories of design and build organisations, the design and build form of contract is
primarily structured in the interest of the client.
75
Boudjabeur
design and build, i.e. the contractor’s early involvement; the multi-disciplinary
approach; the overlapping of design and construction phases, projects carried out
under this form of contracting perform well as far as speed and cost are concerned.
Unfortunately, these views are not shared by everybody, the method has been heavily
criticized by professionals (Murcutt, 1988). It has been voiced that design and build
falls short of quality standards and that the architectural significance of buildings is
being lost. Franks, 1983 states: “package deal may have technological versatility but
there are not usually associated with prestigious buildings”. Furthermore, to back up
Franks view, Bennett and Flanagan, 1983, in their series of articles entitled “New
Direction: Management Options”, suggest that design and build is only suitable for
simple and well defined or standard building.
It is worth mentioning that all these views were made in the early 80’s. Since then,
and following the lifting of the RIBA ban, architects have taken up front positions
within design and build firms, resulting in the qualitative design expertise of the
architect to be injected into design and build. This has lead to improved quality and
aesthetically pleasing buildings being produced by design and build. This view has
been listed in Franks, 1990b, as one of the advantages benefiting design and build.
There is ample evidence to suggest that design and build has come a long away to
distance itself from the “tin shed” image of the past. This is demonstrated by its
ongoing increasing popularity which emphasizes its acceptance and broad use by the
client to projects which were previously thought to be too complex for this method of
procurement. Further evidence to support this creed is provided by James Franks views
who is a regular writer about design and build. While in 1983, Franks stated that
design and build was not to be associated with prestigious building, 10 years later, in
1993, he maintains that: “there is ample evidence of high technology being
satisfactorily completed using design and build approach”. Furthermore, to back up
Franks view, Ndekugri and Turner, 1994, in their survey of contractors, designers, and
building contractors regarding design and build issues concluded that there is no
apparent reason for the quality of construction in design and build to be lower than
with the traditional approach and that the view that the design and build procurement
method is only suitable for very small and simple projects is no longer tenable.
76
Design and build defined
ATTITUDES OF PROFESSIONS
The emergence of design and build as a major method of procuring buildings has been
met by a lack of acceptance by some professions within the industry (Ndekugri and
Turner, 1994; Torrance, 1992 and Griffith, 1989), especially the architect who saw
design and build as a treat to his/her profession. This hostility towards design and
build was demonstrated by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) codes of professional conduct which,
until recently barred their members from taking up senior appointments in design an
build firms (Ndekugri and Turner, 1994 and Franks, 1993). With the emergence of
design and build perhaps the largest change for the construction industry, has been the
change in traditional roles of the members of the construction team. Indeed as Cecil,
1983, states, no-one will be affected more that the architect. He maintains: “Design
build implies major changes in roles, relationships and responsibilities, and for no-one
more radically than the architect”. This change has lead architects to feel being
stripped of their powers and perhaps to be the strongest opponents of design and build
as a method of procurement. They, architects, claim that the system is weighted too
77
Boudjabeur
much in favour of the contractor, i.e. the control of the project swings from the
architect to the contractor. The danger is that, they maintain, the integration of the
design and construction phases forces the buildability aspects of projects to the fore.
This, opponents argue, leads to architectural significance of buildings being lost. This
argument is supported in an article by Stewart and Spring, 1993 entitled “Design and
Fall” in the Building magazine. The article recognises that design and build was,
indeed seen by architects as an attack on the quality of design. These views were
echoed in late 1993, when architects were given the opportunity to express their
opinions of design and build in a debate sponsored by the Building magazine entitled
“Design or build which is more important?”. In the debate, Richard MacCormac, until
recently the RIBA President, took the opportunity to condemn modern methods of
procurement and to complain that design and build in particular was responsible for
the demise of good design in the British construction industry. He was also quick to
point out that the cause of this demise was the removal of the architect as the central
figure. He blamed this erosion on “inexperienced clients with an ignorance of design”,
claiming that the short term vision of clients was taking British design “Back to the
1960’s” (Design and Build Debate, Building, 1993, p. 21). However, the hostile
comments expressed in the debate should not be taken to be the feelings of all
architects, indeed a recent article by Hutchison, 1991 in the Architects Journal,
entitled “Design and Build: Views from the pews”, states that architects must
recognise that their own failings in leadership have contributed significantly to the
growth of design and build. Furthermore, following the design and build market
success in recent years coupled with the lifting of the ban imposed by the RIBA on its
members allowing them to become full partners and to take up senior appointments in
design and build firms, there is evidence of a beginning of a shift in opinion that
architects are accepting that design and build must now be considered as a serious
option (Stewart and Spring, 1993, Building, pp. 20-21). The architects attitudes
towards design and build as a procurement method is probably best summarised in the
Tavistock Institute briefing paper No. 2, 1996. The paper notes that: “Architects
appear very divided - while many find work through D/B, many see it as bad for
design and as displacing their role in interpreting the client’s requirements”.
78
Design and build defined
79
Boudjabeur
The future of design and build is promising and as a method of procurement is here to
stay provided that, the design and build organisation acknowledge the challenges
which lay ahead as a nature of design and build, continue to meet the ever demanding
client’s requirements in a satisfactory manner and respond positively to the changes in
order to be able to provide the kind of services which the construction industry and the
client of the future will demand and to remain in business in this competitive market
for the year 2001 and beyond.
REFERENCES
Akintoye, A. (1994) Design and build: a survey of construction contractors’ views,
Construction Management and Economics, 12, 155-163.
Anon. (1989) Contracts in use, Chartered Quantity Surveyor, January, 24-26.
Anon. (1992) New Specifiers, Building Market Report, September, 8-9.
Barham, K.; Fraser, J. and Heath, L. (1988) Management for the future, A major research
project jointly sponsored by the Foundation for Management Education and Ashridge
Management College, U.K., March.
Bennett, J. and Flanagan, R. (1983) Management options: new directions, Building, April 8,
32-33.
Brochner, J. (1990) Impacts of information technology on the structure of construction,
Construction Management and Economics, 8, 205-218.
Caddick, P. (1988) Design and build, Yorkshire Post, March 18.
Cecil, R. (1983), Contracts: design and build, Architects Journal, March 30, 61.
Centre for Construction Market Information (CCMI) (1990) Design and Build, London.
Centre for Strategic Studies in Construction (CSSC) (1988) Building Britain 2001, CSSC,
University of Reading, U.K.
Centre for Strategic Studies in Construction (CSSC) (1989) Investing in Building 2001,
CSSC, University of Reading, U.K.
Cheetham, D, and Jaggar, D. (1990) Procurement systems: which way forward?, CIB-W92
Symposium, 10-13 September, Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
Chow, K.F. (1989) The impact of information technology in the construction industry,
Proceedings of the First IES Information Technology Conference, 25-27 May,
Singapore.
Clegg, S. (1992) Contracts cause conflict. In: Fenn, P. and Gameson, R. (Eds), Construction
conflict: management and resolution, London: Spon.
Emmerson, Sir, H. (1962) Survey of problems before the construction industries, London:
HMSO.
Flenn, P. (1992) Managing the contractual relationship: privatisation and project management,
Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference ARCOM, 18-20 September, Isle of Man,
UK, 81-87.
Franks, J, (1993) Making the most of design & build, Chartered Quantity Surveyor (CQS),
15(11/12), July/August, 18-21.
Franks, J. (1982) The package-deal system has all the client’s building needs, Building Trade
Journal, December 2, 24-28.
Franks, J. (1983) Assessing the alternative systems for managing the building process,
Building Trades Journal, May(12), 40.
80
Design and build defined
Franks, J. (1990a) Building procurement system, Second Edition, The Chartered Institute Of
Building (CIOB).
Franks, J. (1990b) Procurement in the 1990’s, Chartered Quantity Surveyor, The Royal
Institute of Chartered Surveyors, U.K., February.
Franks, J. (1992) Design & build tendering: do we need a code of practice?, Charter Builder,
The Charter Institute of Building, U.K., 4(5), June.
Griffith, A. (1989) Design-build procurement and buildability, The Chartered Institute Of
Building (CIOB),Technical Information Service, (112).
Hamilton, N. (1990) A review of united kingdom procurement methods, Proceedings of the
CIB-W92, Procurement Systems, Symposium, 10-13 September, Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
Hughes, W. (1992) Developing construction procurement law, Proceedings of the 8th Annual
Conference, ARCOM, 18-20 September, Isle of Man, U.K., 97-110.
Hutchison, D. (1991) Design and build: views from the pews, Architect Journal, July(3), 51-
58.
Janssens, D.E. (1991) Design-build explained, London: MacMillan.
Latham, Sir, M. (1994) Constructing the team, London: HMSO.
Murcutt, A.G. (1988) Code of estimating practice: supplement no.2. Design and Build, The
Chartered Institute Of Building (CIOB), U.K.
Nahapiet, H. and Nahapiet, J. (1985) The management of construction projects: case studies
from the U.S.A. and U.K. Ascot: The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB).
Ndekugri, I, and Turner, A. (1994) Building procurement by design and build approach,
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 120(2), June, 243-256.
NEDO (1983) Faster building for industry, London: Building Economic Development
Committee.
NEDO (1991) Partnering: contracting without conflict, London: U.K.
Nicholson, P. (1990) A comparative study of the procurement methods for design work, with
particular reference to the design & build contracts, Proceedings of the CIB-W92,
Procurement Systems, Symposium, 10-13 September, Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
Rowlinson, S. (1987) Design build: its development and present status, Occasional Paper,
The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), London.
Rowlinson, S.M. (1988) An analysis of factors affecting project performance in industrial
building: with particular reference to design build contracts, Ph.D. Thesis, University
of Brunel, U.K.
Stewart, A. and Spring, M. (1993) Design and fall, Building, November(5), 20-21.
Swanoton, R. (1990) U.K. procurement procedures: contractual procedures for building,
Proceedings of an International Workshop, July, University of Liverpool, U.K., 23-
34.
Tavistock Institute, (1996) Innovations in the organisation of construction, briefing paper no.
2, Frameworks and Initiatives for Improving the Organisation of Construction, U.K.
Torrance, V.B. (1992) The development of the construction project management processes: an
overview. Proceedings, International Conference on Tall Buildings, Reach For The
Sky, 28-30 July, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
81