Design Manager - What is the difference in the role depending upon who you represent ?

Question

Its intrigued me this issue since I have come across Design Managers who are engaged by multi-disciplinary design practices and those who work for Contractors under a D&B contract.

It appears to me that there is a difference on the primary objective of the role and outputs. Can someone shed some light on this in headline terms?

Tom Spilsted · Answer

Andy in my view design management as a role in the industry has taken on more importance in many peoples view due to the increase over the last few decades in the uptake of Design and Build. So much of what is achieved on site depends upon the timely production of quality information. Sounds simple but it has become increasingly difficult to achieve. Design managers seem to come from a variety of backgrounds and yet does the industry really know what it wants from one? I have seen many versions - the good, the bad, and the ugly -
1. Top notch managers who understand fully how a design comes together and what good looks like.
2. Process managers who tick boxes when a pack of drawings comes in but don't check coordination or quality.
3 Leaders of the design process who ensure all designers both consultant and specialist understand what is required and by when.

Often we think of managers who perform better for an Employer or contractor, this to me misses the point, both parties need a quality design delivery timely for procurement and build. Into this mix the RIBA and BSRIA design stages are well thought through but need to be used to check design compliance rather than to demonstrate the design is no longer my problem and through it over the fence to someone else.

Quality design equals quality build.

Design Manager - What is the difference in the role depending upon who you represent ?

Design-management

construction

design

Andrew Crawford

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