1. The Design Team
Carl James

2. The Design Team

3. Architects and designers of buildings need to be clear about what a client needs from a building and then work closely with the construction team to ensure that these dreams are realised into a fully functioning building.
Sometimes construction projects become so complex that the whole team is very large, comprising people with specialist skills and experience who all contribute to the finished product.

4. The exact requirements of each construction project vary with the type of building and availability of labour in the region.
A typical design team establishes a clear contractual relationship between all parties and allocates roles and responsibilities for specialist activities in the process of completing the project.

5. Architects
Architects and designers usually need to have the following skills:
An ability to identify and articulate a client’s brief to meet both user and longer-term needs as well as society’s concerns for sustainable development.
An understanding of the client’s perspective and an ability to communicate effectively with each member of the construction team.
An understanding of relevant legislation and its potential effect on programme cost and quality of design. An understanding of health, safety and welfare legislation and its implications on design and construction.

6. An ability to construct the team; to coordinate and integrate the work of the team members.
An ability to communicate effectively with the client and an understanding of methods of reporting.

8. Architectural Technologist
Technologists usually work in partnership with architects to establish contract procedures and administration of work.
They also draft out and develop drawings and construction-related details so that the project can be completed.
Architectural technologists have a deep understanding of construction technology and can translate ideas into sound, accurate drawings that a contractor can follow. Quantity surveyors will need to read these drawings so that the bills of quantities and the specifications can be drawn up, hence the production of precise and accurate details of construction technology is essential.

9. Interior Designer
Interior designers are sometimes used on contracts where the internal finish and décor is important or of a prestigious nature.
Some high-profile house building projects or city-centre apartment conversions have been developed in conjunction with interior designers who can add considerable value to a project.

10. Landscape Architect
Landscaping, or the arranging of the external environment, like the interior design, can be enhanced by a specialist who can develop this theme to improve the completed project.
Frequently, speculative housing projects will benefit from a landscape architect who will design open spaces, leisure areas, land drainage and improve the appearance of the development.

11. Clerk of Works
A client will want assurance that a contractor is producing a building that meets the specification in terms of both materials and workmanship. The clerk of works is employed directly by the client but also reports to the architect on progress of the construction works.
The clerk of works will need to inspect the works as work proceeds and hence needs to be a frequent visitor to the site. On some larger sites, a clerk of works will have a resident office and spend their entire working time there.
Clerks of works do not issue instructions and do not have authority to impose variations or changes to the design.

12. Structural Engineer
Structural engineers determine the design of loadbearing elements of the building and ensure that each component is designed to safely withstand and carry the loads that are imposed on the building.
Structural engineers typically work for the client but are frequently engaged by the architect to inform and supervise the design and installation of structural elements as work proceeds.

13. Resident Engineer
Resident engineers are based on the construction site itself, close to the construction works and supervise and report back to the structural engineer and the architect on matters relating to the structure and the load-bearing components that have been detailed and designed by the structural engineer.

14. Quantity Surveyor
Quantity surveyors accurately determine the amount of materials needed for the project to be built.
They prepare a bill of quantities establishing a record of all the materials needed and identifying all the information necessary to draft out a specification of the works.
Having established this information, the quantity surveyor can then advise and guide the architect or the client on the cost of the job, check tenders and evaluate any costs as work proceeds.

15. Building Services Engineer
Building services and the effective use of heat, light, acoustics and other electrical appliances have seen significant improvements in recent years.
Building services engineers design and implement a range of items into the project that improve the resources and the quality of the building.
Many of these items such as lifts, escalators, air conditioning and heating and ventilation systems need to be integrated into the contract drawings at an early stage to avoid conflicts of space or to ensure that the design can accommodate machinery, plant and equipment.

16. Facilities manager
Facilities managers maintain the building once it is built. Their duties include the maintenance of the physical structure by undertaking construction works such as painting, decorating, easing doors, replacing carpet and floor finishes and so on.
Their role also includes the essential duties to ensure that the building functions; examples of this are the cleaning of the building, the replacing of lamps and fittings, checking and repairing heating controls and other such essential items that are required to enable the building to be occupied.

17. Interactions between team members
There are many interactions between the design and construction team members. Those listed below are a sample of the interactions that occur in a project’s life cycle:

18. Client/architect – discuss the design brief and different solutions producing an agreed design and specification.
Architect/structural engineer – this interaction involves the structural feasibility of the agreed design with any amendments.
Architect/quantity surveyor/client – discuss the client’s budget and the costs of various schemes.
Principal contractor/quantity surveyor /architect – discuss, amend or negotiate tenders and quotations for work.
Main contractor/architect/quantity surveyor – agree the final account on completion of the work.

19. Others who Indirectly Involved
Planning Authorities
Building Control