D&B or D&D?!

I recall 15 years or so ago when first using design and build (D&B) as a means of procurement. The Employer's Requirements we wrote were worded in a way that gave the Contractor as much flexibility as we could for his design, so he could innovate but (learning the hard way) had to make sure we duly accommodated the operational costs to ensure the solution was based on whole life principles. So, 15 or so years later, how have we progressed these early thoughts? I actually think we have gone backwards. For me, D&B should really be called D&D, which is design and dump. I see a real mess these days (can anyone tell me where this advice is coming from?) in that a client engages his design team who take the design so far then say you pick this up Mr Contractor, finish it off, making sure it all meets some really high level performance specification such as "I want a building that is just what my business needs" and if there are any errors in the original design then that is your problem. For good measure I'll dump these designers on you too. How is this D&B? How is it innovative? Just who is benefitting from this 'modern day' approach? Rob

NEC student research

More student research, where the student is in his final year at Birmingham City University for a BSc Hons in Quantity Surveying. For his Comprehensive Study Project, he has chosen to investigate whether the ‘Spirit of Mutual Trust and Co-operation’ is embraced by the Project Team under the NEC3 form of contract . In terms of research, he has prepared a survey to gather practitioners’ views on this topic. To meet this objective, he invites you to participate in the survey that he has prepared. The survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete and can be accessed via the following hyperlink....

http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=701efd68-a7ff-400b-8120-c3bd4afd1ba0

Thank you, Rob

NEC Student Research

Dear all,

Another student survey to finish the week with, this one is about the effect of NEC on quality management in the UK construction industry. Many thanks in advance.

Rob

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PVTJBXV

Student NEC Research

A busy day for NEC dissertatations from students!

2 more surveys to complete please if users' would be so kind.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NNYYPRN

and

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/samuelmukelabaikashweka

Regards,
Rob

Student NEC research

Hi,

3 further student questionnaires if you could give up 5 mins or so of your time for each of them, they would be extremely grateful.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W599P6G

and

http://www.eSurveysPro.com/Survey.aspx?id=9c7abb24-fbd0-494c-acb3-7ea37b652f6c

and

http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=822d5d59-f1a5-49e7-9c7f-08959089e470

Regards,
Rob