Hiring a design team is a critical stage for the success of any project. It’s all too common for a request for proposal to be overly simplified, on the basis of “how much does it cost to do a project like this?” when in fact there are countless variables that are important to establish with the contract.
But what are these important things that we need to clarify? Here are a few examples:
Team structure:
- Which projects do we need to hire? Which engineering disciplines (there are so many these days…)
- Are we going to hire everything out to one architecture firm, with the engineering falling under the responsibility of architecture?
- Or are we going to hire the architecture and the different specialities separately?
- And if this is the case, do we hire all the specialities from a single firm or do we split them up?
- If everything is hired from the same organisation, how do we ensure control of the project’s progress and decisions? And the integration with management and costs?
- And if separate teams are hired, how do we ensure their management and coordination?
Scope of action
- How will the budget be managed and what need is there for quantifications and estimates during the design phase?
- How will measurements and bills of quantities be made?
- How will the construction licensing processes be monitored and managed?
- How will the designers be involved during construction?
- Where does the project end and the construction preparation begin? (and this will have to be aligned with the construction contract).
- Will the engineers be present at the commission of the installations?
- What involvement will the designers have in any certification processes?
Organisation and development of the work
- How will the projects be coordinated?
- What about compatibility? How will the project team be organised to ensure minimally compatible projects on site?
- How flexible and open is the team to receive the requirements, opinions and suggestions of the client and their team?
- How will the development phase of the project be planned?
- What room is there for iteration, incorporating feedback, phases of analysis and revision, etc.?
Note that these are just examples; there is much more to consider in this contract.
All of this has a tremendous impact on the way the project develops, the degree of control over the final product, project costs and planning. All of this affects the designer’s fees, because a more demanding level of service means more hours, more availability and more fees.
We can’t stress enough that anyone starting a project in this industry should think very carefully about the hiring of project teams. A poorly structured and contracted team is a sure-fire path to problems of all kinds and at all stages of the project.
