Health and safety: A designer's perspective

Most would agree that design is a difficult and demanding process. And, with the ever increasing demands placed on designers ranging from; client aspirations, professional and statutory obligations, sustainability and environmental impact, to name but a few, designing with greater emphasis on health and safety aspects is just one more demand which the designer is expected to meet. Much of the previous research carried out on design and health and safety has been written from the viewpoint of the health and safety professional or academics with little practical design experience. As a result, these viewpoints tend to raise issues which place focus on the designer's output and its' effect on health and safety in the construction process rather than wondering what the designer views as being the main issues and how they seek to resolve these issues. In other words, a problem is only a problem if the person perceives it to be a problem. This paper forms part of a 3 year PhD research project which aims to enter into the world of the consulting design engineer. This paper will outline early preliminary findings from an investigation of wondering how design engineers view health and safety; their approach to health and safety during the design process and how they seek to resolve any difficulties faced. The methodology approach used in this research is the Grounded Theory method.