Opinion giving building services design the attention it deserves Design management should be focusing more on building services according to Jackie Portman, who says there should be a new discipline devoted to the management of MEP design Jackie Portman is a design manager Historically, design management consists of monitoring drawing, document and schedule completion against a planned release schedule. This approach is crude and superficial, giving an approximate guide to progress without consideration of the design activity itself. The most serious inadequacy is the inability to predict the impact of any changes. Design alterations are an unavoidable outcome of the ill-defined nature of design problems. These are frequently caused by the clients instruction for example, a change/clarification of the brief or by the designer in eliminating an error or improving the design. Design management issues cannot be resolved by squeezing the design process, achieving the same milestones with less information, or by making autocratic decisions to change design sequences. Non-existent or ineffective design management results in extended timescales and poor quality of information. Any unresolved design issues have to be answered at some point, possibly during duct cable tray Wi repealer Fire alarm sounder pipe smoke detector lights wall mounted camera and cable light switch socket outlet installation or, in the worst case, when a building is operational. There have been numerous efforts to place design on a higher intellectual level, and to develop it as a discipline with its own structure, methods and vocabulary. The methodologies for design management are inherently complex and exacerbated by the highly dynamic nature of the construction industry, the iterative nature of any creative process and the reworking that inevitably must be planned for. The increasing number of specialisms, coupled with a tendency for participants to work in silos, provides further challenges. Furthermore, design management is increasingly becoming a contractor-led process, which may be a new scenario for some of the parties involved. Typically the building services installation is worth 30-60% of the total value of a contract, but often literature on design management bundles building services up with other disciplines and does not recognise its unique features and idiosyncrasies (see panel below). Successful design management is about managing the process. This needs leadership, which in turn means excellent interpersonal skills. Its about listening to, responding to, and understanding others, so that problems are more accurately analysed. This means the corrective actions are more likely to remove the difficulty or resolve the problem. Design management is not the same as project management. Project management focuses on a wider range of administrative skills but is not normally sympathetic to the peculiarities of delivering a fully coordinated functioning design. It does not take into account the factors that may have an impact on designs such as the changing requirements of clients and external issues. The siting of new care homes needs careful consideration Why building services needs to be managed Building services engineering systems are dynamic Building services engineering systems have to react both to changes in external conditions and the patterns of behaviour inside a building all of which are constantly changing. Occupant subjectivity Some aspects of the outputs of the building services engineering design are open to end-user scrutiny and personal judgments, which need to be managed as a part of the process. End-user behaviour Controlling the performance of building services is not just down to the installed building services engineering equipment and their controls. The design will be based on defined patterns of occupancy, such as: density and duration of people in areas of building; the ratios between men and women and able-bodied and disabled; assumptions about portable equipment for example, those plugged into electrical sockets or connected to water outlets; and the nature of the finishes, including colour, density, texture and material, to walls, floors and ceiling. Maintainability Building services engineering systems are the only active components in an otherwise passive structure. The continual ability of the systems to perform interactively is of vital importance to operational requirements. When a building is put into use, its building services systems have to perform day-in, day-out for the life of a building and hence require ongoing attention. Shortfalls in design will be visible sooner or later. Sequencing of the design process Construction should be multidisciplinary but, in reality, the architect and the structural engineers still tend to lead the planning process, with the building services engineering systems expected to fit into their solutions. Design responsibility Building services engineers usually produce drawings and a specification to obtain atender. These should be coordinated withthearchitectural and structural engineering solutions. Generally, building services engineers do not produce constructionor installation drawings. Their deliverables usually state therequirements passed on to subcontractors in terms of design responsibility. In contrast, architects and structural engineers more often produce drawings and specification for contractors and subcontractors. Energy consumption Building services systems are a major consumer of energy. The current focus on sustainability and the green agenda means that more attention is being paid to operational efficiency of systems, the selection of materials and the management of end-user expectations. Design life expectancy Building services engineering plant, equipment and systems are typically designed to function in a building for a lifespan of 20-25 years at the most. However, in reality, this could be less, as changes in legislation or technological advancements make them obsolete. This contrasts with structural and civil engineering solutions, which are usually designed for a much longer lifespan. Accordingly, the building services engineering design, at the outset, needs to take into account the likelihood that they will be upgraded or replaced; this includes considering how plant and equipment can be removed from the building, responsibly disposed of, and replaced, while still taking into account the continuing operation of the building during the disruption.