Power handed back to the architect?

Design and Build contracts may soon be phased out on commercial projects and replaced by more traditional forms of construction contracts. This was one of the conclusions of a recent roundtable discussion held in the commercial district in Birmingham and hosted by Glass Express Midlands.

According to Liz Williams, Housing Delivery Expert at Land Specialist UK, the revised Building Safety Act requires far greater ‘Golden Thread’ design control from a single professional – ie, the architect – from the project’s design all the way through to completion.

This would be easier to achieve in a traditional construction contract rather than a Design and Build one, according to Liz.

“When a building is being designed, the architect is the key person who ensures design compliance with the Building Safety Act and the new enhanced regulations,” she said.

“Now that any change in the design must be resubmitted for regulator approval, it doesn’t make commercial or compliance sense to swap out that designer. It will almost invariably cost more if you change the designer, in both time and fees.

“Consistency in maintaining adequate professional indemnity and collateral warranties alongside the increased liabilities will increase costs.  It is therefore more likely that the designer – the architect – will be retained.

“This could mean the end of recognised Design and Build because it won’t be in the contractor’s interests to change the designer or to value-engineer the design of the building. Changing the design will mean having to go back into the regulatory process, which will cause significant programme delays, costing more.”

Liz was joined by Gurprit Bassi, Director at Wintech Façade Engineering, and Aneel Kilaire, Associate Façade Consultant at Ramboll UK. They were in discussion with Arun Photay, Managing Director of Glass Express Midlands about the effect of the Grenfell enquiry on the construction industry.

The conversations, which were filmed and will be published on LinkedIn, covered a variety of angles, including safety, skills and trust.

“The Grenfell report was absolutely damning of everybody involved,” Liz said. “And as an industry, we have to rebuild that trust, because right now it cannot get any lower.

“We need to work together to build it back up, and we need to do that by ensuring that the design process and the compliance with that design process satisfies not just the regulator, but the trust of the public.”

These discussions, held against the backdrop of a thriving Birmingham skyline, were hosted by Glass Express Midlands to explore some of the issues raised in a recent high profile roundtable event hosted by the glass unit manufacturer near Whitehall in London.

“The manufacture and supply of glass products into the commercial sector doesn’t happen in isolation,” Managing Director of Glass Express Midlands Arun Photay said. “It is vital that we create and promote forums like these to raise awareness of key issues so that we can help raise the level of professionalism in the construction industry.

“Thank you to all our guests who gave up their time to share their views and experience.”

Follow Glass Express Midlands on LinkedIn to view the videos which will be released over the coming weeks.