Emmitt - Design Management for Architects

This edition first published 2014
2007 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Emmitt, Stephen.
Design management for architects / Stephen Emmitt. Second Edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-39446-5 (pbk.)
1. Architectural design. 2. Architectural practiceManagement. I. Title.
NA2750.E46 2014
720.68dc23

2013038758

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Cover image: www.hisandhersdesign.co.uk
Cover design by Sophie Ford, His and Hers Design

It was during the 1960s that the architectural profession in the UK started to take the issue of management seriously. The RIBAs report The Architect and His Office (1962) highlighted the architects lack of managerial acumen, which resulted in the subsequent publication of many guides, such as the RIBA Plan of Work and Architects Job Book . This early work has been continually revised and updated over the years, providing architects, architectural technologists and technicians with essential guidance to the administration of individual projects. Interest in the management of design has also been growing, with the growth of the design management literature and the evolution of the design manager role within the fields of architecture and construction. Parallel to this has been the growth and evolution of construction management literature, which more recently has started to expand into the areas of design management and briefing. Since the 1960s there have been considerable changes in our approach to the management of construction projects and, despite many good examples of how to manage the processes effectively and professionally, we still see reports urging us to do it better. In addition to the reports and initiatives aimed at the construction sector, there have also been a small number of reports aimed specifically at architects. These have emphasised the need for better management of design activities and design offices, while also raising questions about how, and what, architects should be taught. Whatever our view, it is difficult to ignore the fact that our fellow professionals leave university with a thorough understanding of how to manage projects and commercial enterprises. The result is that architects often find it difficult to relate to their fellow project contributors and frequently find themselves excluded from important decision-making stages at pivotal stages in the life of a project. Architects have a significant part to play in the realisation of creative and exciting buildings, but this is difficult to achieve when positioned outside the management culture. It is imperative in a highly competitive business environment that architects are able to demonstrate professional management skills and leadership competences to their clients and hence retain (or regain) an important place in the planning and management of our built environment. Similarly, it is fundamental that architects are able to communicate with fellow professionals in an environment of greater collaboration and integral working; this requires an understanding and appreciation of management.

As students we spend a great deal of time, effort and emotional energy on learning to design, only to find that on entering practice we are suddenly constrained by many different pressures and controls. Administration seems to be endless and managerial controls too restrictive. Frustration is immediate, not necessarily because there is less time to devote to design, but because we have inadequate grounding in the management of design. My own managerial skills were honed in architectural practice through experience (good and bad), combined with reading many books and articles on management, and, when time permitted, reflection on daily practice. At the time there were few publications that dealt with managing the complexities of design and/or creative architectural practices. Books aimed at architects were primarily concerned with the administration of individual projects, not with the management of creative staff, nor for that matter with the interrelationship between the project portfolio and the office a situation that has changed little over the years. My aim was to write a book that would be pertinent, stimulating and above all useful for architects entering architectural practices, essentially the type of book that I would have welcomed when starting out. The approach taken is to address the synergy between the management of projects (Part One) and the management of design offices (Part Two). It is the interdependency of architects and clients businesses, represented in projects, that colours, shapes and determines the quality of our built environment. The premise is that to be successful we need to ensure that projects are managed professionally and are conceived and delivered within a professionally managed office. It is through effective management of the design office and the project portfolio that client values may be translated into a physical artefact with minimal loss of creativity.

This book has been a complex and lengthy undertaking, bringing together many, often disparate, areas under one set of covers. The ideas and concepts presented were first developed when I was working as a design manager in an architects office and were subsequently refined through interaction with a wide variety of construction professionals in practice and academia. The academic environment has allowed time and space for the ideas to be researched, tested and developed further.