Defect free building is as much a matter of understanding client goals as it is of achieving competent detailing and construction

The Brief
A successful project starts in good co-ordination and the development of an effective brief.  Briefs evolve with
studies of feasibility and develop to embrace the design team’s ideas, but they are initially an expression of client aspirations or needs.  The firmer the clients’ idea of what they want at the outset the more straightforward it is to write the initial brief.

Those uninitiated in building may, when first taking on the role of client, have difficulty in expressing their objectives clearly, causing the brief to develop through several stages.  On large jobs, as the client’s ideas coalesce they can be collated in writing for development into an initial brief.  On jobs of all sizes, good communication is required to ensure the developing brief is understood and agreed.

Along with developing the brief and exploring the possibilities it is usually necessary to agree probable cost and available budgets at an early stage, to reduce the risk of later disappointment and dispute.  Even where this is done, a failure to respect the client’s requirements can lead to dispute and dissatisfaction. 

A city commissioned a theatre from an architect at a fixed maximum budget for both fees and build cost. 

The architect prepared a design and, assisted by a quantity surveyor, reported the projected build cost within budget.  When tenders came in well over budget, the architect promised adequate savings during construction.  In mistaken reliance on these assurances, the client agreed to build. 

The architect, eager to make a name as a grand designer, found ambition incompatible with monetary constraint, and not only failed to achieve the promised savings but piled up additional cost – doubling the budget overrun.

In the resulting legal action, the architect argued that his building was of such merit that his actions were justified; indeed, it would have been worth paying even more to obtain such excellent architecture.

After the dispute had run some distance, the architect’s insurers conceded a payment to compensate the city for the architect’s misdemeanours but the compensation fell far below the overspend on the project. 

In this case the architect benefited from the nature of his client.  Had they been a commercial organisation and the theatre built for profit, a larger claim might have been sustained against him.

The lack of standard formats for briefing documentation confuses many clients and adds to the difficulty of producing consistently good briefs. 

Briefs need to contain four elements:

1.       General – covering the broad parameters and functional requirements for the facilities, and matters of quality and form.

2.       Financial – cost and expenditure as items in themselves but also related to the quality parameters in the General Brief.

3.       Timescale – the project development and construction programme related to cost and quality.

4.       Lifetime assessment – operating expectations, life expectancy, management and maintenance.

These four components require review at all stages of the evolution of the brief and require within the design team the different skills of designer, cost consultant, project planner and facility manager.