Assembling A Collaborative Team - Other - Page 54
Assembling a Collaborative Project Team
Client questions at each stage
The UK Government is adding a further take on this subject by considering the
questions that are required to be answered at each stage. Design teams customarily
produce stage reports, typically based on a practice’s standard way of working.
The RIBA Plan of Work has never been prescriptive in this regard and no specific
guidance exists, and as a result the content of such reports varies widely. The UK
Government is less interested in what a design team typically produces than in
receiving the information that answers its questions. While this thinking is still at
an embryonic stage, it underlines the need to consider WHO will produce WHAT
at each stage, prior to fee proposals being finalised. This creates a level playing
field, may reduce the amount of information produced in the early stages and
ensures that the client receives the right amount of information at the end of each
stage to allow the project to be signed off and progress to the next stage with
greater clarity and certainty.
This topic is discussed further in the Information Exchanges section on page 72
and the level of detail text on page 73.
The client and the Building Contract
The client will have to enter into a Building Contract with a contractor in order to
construct the designed project. The degree of detail contained in the Employer’s
Requirements and the contractor’s response (the Contractor’s Proposals) will
depend on the form of procurement adopted. The exception to this rule is a
traditional project, where the contractor will be expected to construct the project
as set out in the design team’s information, although discrete aspects of the
design may be developed by a specialist subcontractor. In some instances the
Contractor’s Proposals may not be sufficiently developed to enable the Employer’s
Requirements to be completely disregarded. In these instances, the precedence
of information must be clearly established in the Building Contract.
Summary
The project brief is a core design tool, particularly during Stage 2, when it will
continue to be refined as the Concept Design develops. However, the inclusion
of Project Outcomes and other objectives within the project brief requires the
project lead to consider the duties of the various parties in greater detail,
particularly for the post-handover and in-use project stages.
www.ribaplanofwork.com
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