Project management.

Three factors -- partnering, design and dealing with people -- have contributed to the success of Buro Happold. Tanya Ross of Buro Happold writes.

Large multi-disciplinary high-profile projects can be innovative yet economic while meeting an exacting client brief, but Buro Happold recognizes that to achieve this, a consistently high level of coordination and communication is necessary. One of the ways in which Buro Happold achieves this is through design management. This covers a wide range of activities: at its simplest, it is the delivery of design information to an agreed timetable, but on today's fast-track projects it requires in-depth understanding of the design and construction processes to co-ordinate and schedule the design process.

Designers -- structural and services engineers, architects and interior designers -- are creative individuals and the creative process does not fit readily into a simple linear programme. By its very nature, good design evolves from broad concept through outline scheme to integrated design. Even then, flexibility for late brilliant ideas has to be accommodated. So, how do we go about managing these creative people, and still achieve the vital deadlines set by today's demanding clients? By communication.

First, the client must appreciate the multitude of criteria that can influence the design so that a genuinely realistic programme can be agreed. It is no good expecting electrical tender drawings to be issued on the day that architectural general arrangement plans are frozen and a specialist lighting consultant is appointed. There must be a logical sequence to these events. Second, there must be clear means of communication within the design team, so good ideas are not hamstrung by lack of co-ordination. In architect/engineer/specialist consultant relationships, ensuring that the right people are talking together is vital. Third, there must be practical methodology to managing change, so that all parties can embrace design developments, and implement modifications with minimum disruption.

Each Buro Happold job is assigned a project co-ordinator. On single discipline projects, they are the project engineers. On larger multidisciplinary projects, the project coordinators need to have a wider field of view than their own discipline, and must be alert to issues that may affect colleagues in potentially remote areas of personal interest. A dedicated design manager can act as a single interface point, both for members of the design team and the client and any other external bodies.

It is the design managers' task to keep distractions away from designers: to ensure that if they need information from external sources, data is available; to chivvy designers to meet the agreed deadlines and to assist in evaluating the impact of changes instigated by the client. Each job is different, depending on the nature of the project, the client, contractual arrangements, so design managers have to be flexible and good communicators with broad construction knowledge. In these days of increasing specialism, clients welcome a single point of contact with their designers, someone that will accept responsibility for solving problem or finding an answer rather than shrugging their shoulders with 'Not my problem, guy'. And, to get the most out of engineers, a design manager who can shoulder collective responsibility is proving to be the best solution.