Managing architectural design: a recent survey

The complexity of building projects and the increasing sophistication of professionals involved in construction are creating new challenges to building design management. For example the clients are not only interested in value for money in relation to the project cost but in cost in use through time of their buildings. Clients must show profits in competitive markets and architects have to understand the commercial aspects of buildings as well as the more central design parameters. Coping with these challenges requires a full understanding of the wide variety of contractual relationships between all of the parties involved in building; it requires a good understanding of advanced management techniques as well as the latest advancements in technology. This paper studies the architectural design process in the UK, to discover how it is managed and the levels of performance which are currently achieved in practice.