The recent introduction of the Building Safety Act, a growing awareness of the circular economy and instability in the financial economy arguably drives us towards more collaboration between the traditional client and contractor, sharing risk and opportunity.

New roles have emerged to support this process. The BSA Principal Designer will play an active role in the design process to ensure collaboration is integral in the decision making. The introduction of the Compliance Inspector further emphasises the level of collaborative rigour introduced in the construction stage.

The Gateway Two submission to the Building Safety Regulator, is managed by the Principal Designer and requires the design team to pro-actively demonstrate how the design proposals are compliant with the Building Regulations. This needs a robust set of design information and supporting documentation, appropriate for construction.

Although the traditional procurement route allows the design team to carry out more design work upfront, the Gateway Two submission will benefit from the contractor’s expertise and input. Particularly as any design changes post the Gateway Two submission are likely to trigger significant delays to the project due to the approval process with the BSR.

DMWR brings together an expertise in both the delivery and design of complex projects and we are experiencing this trend of early contractors and manufacturers involvement with our latest projects.

Introduce the growing awareness of the circular economy, re-use and recycling of materials, lease and buy-back arrangements between client and manufacturers of building components (lifts/lighting/ fittings as examples), modular off-site construction, and the value of post occupancy evaluation, and the scene is being set for a three or more stage Design and Build future.