Assembling A Collaborative Team - Other - Page 77
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Although, on the whole, designers are aware of the aspects of the design for
which they will be responsible, certain aspects might justifiably be undertaken
by a number of designers. Furthermore, for the majority of building elements
there is no defined or industry-wide agreement that clarifies where the boundary
between the designers and the specialist subcontractors lies. The Design
Responsibility Matrix seeks to bring clarity on these matters early on in a project,
allowing responsibility to be discussed, any ambiguities to be resolved and the
broad-brush principles agreed. For example:
•the architect may have responsibility for determining the ceiling grid dimensions,
the building services engineer responsibility for the light fittings and air grilles
and the specialist subcontractor responsibility for designing the support up to
the structure, taking into account the services above
•the building services engineer may have responsibility for designing the area
of gutter required and routing the pipework to connect with the substructure
drainage designed by the civil and structural engineer, with the roofing
specialist subcontractor responsible for detailing the gutter and the architect
determining the interface with the parapet.
These are two straightforward examples and they are not proposed as the
optimum solution, but merely serve to highlight the design complexity of certain
items and the need for clarity regarding them. Producing the matrix, and
clarifying design responsibilities at an early stage, achieves a number of goals:
•it ensures that each designer is clear about their design responsibilities and
the level of detail to be achieved for each aspect they are designing (via
Information Exchanges), enabling their drawings and specifications or
information to be prepared accordingly
•it ensures that Stage 4 information is developed appropriately by design team
members (i.e. the appropriate design required to suit a performance, full:
generic or full: proprietary level of detail; see the boxed example)
•it makes certain that the contractor is aware of any design responsibility
obligations to be included in the Building Contract
• it allows fees to be properly apportioned and considered by each party
•it reduces any ambiguities about responsibilities, minimising the possibilities
of disputes later in the design process when the project team is likely to be
working ‘flat out’.
For smaller practitioners that frequently work with the same structural engineer
or other designers, and that perhaps use the same products and/or assemblies
from project to project, the Design Responsibility Matrix can be generated based
on a practice’s usual working methods and then used on successive projects. A
practice Design Responsibility Matrix ensures that any design responsibility being
allocated to the contractor is clear from the outset to all members of the design
team, helps to inform the inexperienced client and can be adjusted in line with
project Feedback.
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