Centering on the client.

DESIGNING BETTER BUILDINGS: QUALITY AND VALUE IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Edited by Sandy Macmillan. London Spon Press. 2003. [pounds sterling]32

If it is true that, 'Architects and engineers are in the process of losing (or have already largely lost) design control over building projects through the rise of project management and new procurement methods' then the advice given by the authors of this book is to become more professional than the managers. The authors advance the notion that both clients and architects can reach a higher level of satisfaction through a client-centred approach to design that makes use of specific process and management techniques to ensure a better quality of building. They believe that it is possible to make good economic arguments, to justify good design, and that these arguments, when coupled with greater professionalism, will help designers to win clients over to the design of better buildings.

The book is addressed to both 'those who are engaged in design' and 'clients responsible for commissioning buildings and civil engineering projects'. Further, the book hopes not only to win these two groups over to this new commitment to better buildings, but to provide instruction on how a variety of consulting, quality management, value management, and building performance measurement techniques can be applied in order to achieve better results. But the two constituencies require very different arguments to bring them over to the newer better world of happy collaboration imagined here.

So the authors run a double risk - of being seen as having sold out by the architectural camp, and as being propagandists for the spend-thrifts by the project management, real estate and client group. The arguments that must be made to these two groups are quite different, so two books might have been better than one.

Client centred processes, client satisfaction and well managed design processes are the key concepts advanced. Many architects will be concerned that a client-centred practice will mean that they will no longer be free to design architecturally interesting buildings. Client centredness is often perceived as lowest denominator populism, requiring first and foremost abandonment of ambitions to participate in elite architectural culture. A few authors have illustrated their contributions with photographs of architecturally meretricious buildings, previously published in architectural journals, including AR. But they are too few and often not sufficiently prominent enough to convince many architects that they will be able to reconcile their architectural ambitions with client-friendly practices advocated here. On the other hand, discussions of realized value are too vague to convince many on the client side - too few financial specifics are given.

Chapters on management or design process rarely make connections to built projects, and chapters discussing case studies do not mention the processes and techniques used in achieving the results. So the book fails to make the case that architecturally interesting buildings (or even 'better') can be achieved by using management and process techniques described. That is not to say that these techniques are not effective, only that the case for them is not made.

Still, in the end, the book is worth the read. It is a pity that it is likely that only the already converted will find the book attractive enough to do so.

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