Having worked over a decade in consultancy I always wondered what else was out there and what happens after my part is complete. It’s very easy to become detached from real world conditions if you are not involved in construction and rarely visit site. As a drafter (or BIM coordinator or modeller or digital coordinator or whatever you like to call it at your company) living in the consultancy world, what happens post engagement is not something that you deal with. Any unresolved issues, clashes, and any gaps in the detail or design – the contractor will sort it out, they pretty much start from scratch anyway right?…

But if the contractor starts from scratch or throw our designs in the bin, why do we (as consultants) go to such efforts to produce  “detailed design”. I mean what’s the point? What am I doing here? Whats the meaning of life? Etc.

In the consultancy world, we love putting the following on a drawing:

  • contractor to determine on site
  • contractor to coordinate
  • final design by contractor
  • final location to be determined by contractor
  • contractor to do my job for me

What exactly are we providing as a consultant if we are seemingly passing the buck to the contractor? If we aren’t modelling in real world conditions with final selections, what’s the point of modelling it to this detail anyway?

ITS ALL CONTRACTUAL
The answer is simple – because it’s in the contract.

In a world gone past, a design consultants D&C drawing would be thick poly lines to represent ductwork, a textbox pointing to a room with “provide 6 GPOs”. Sometimes, final submissions were bluebeam-ed. That was all the budget allowed for, that was all that was needed, and that was totally acceptable. Contractor to provide x y z was acceptable and made sense. As time went on, clients picked up on various buzz words (and acronyms) like 3D, 4D, 5D, BIM, revit, LOD, clash free, asset information, common data environment and many MANY more. Suddenly the client is demanding more, but paying the same, and in a sink or swim environment, you either go bust or swim (against the current). Nowadays, final deliverables are now “90% Detailed Design” which feels more like 100% designed for 90% fee.

And if you haven’t delivered to the contract (which is now demanding “clash free”) then you better fire up the lawyers…

In a past life (as a consultant in the consultant industry), I have had to work over the easter long weekend to hit a deadline that turned out to be a design option going in the bin – and we knew this beforehand but were contractually obligated to deliver. My old boss used to say “I get paid the same to rub it out as I do to draw it in”. Yes but I’d rather not draw it in on the long weekend if I’m going to rub it out on Tuesday, and I’m certainly not being paid overtime for this….

CONSULTANT DESIGN vs CONSTRUCTION DESIGN
Working at iingen as a consultant with a focus on the construction side, it seems there is less rubbing it out (after initially rubbing out the consultant design that is). The attitude on this side of the fence is more of a “get it done, make it serviceable, make it installable, make it work” attitude and its refreshing because no longer are my efforts going in the bin (I hope). Taking a consultant design and making it a reality gives me purpose. Over here everyone knows that “clash free” doesn’t exist. But what does exist is real world selections, with real world tolerances and requirements and all the challenges that goes with that.

THE PROBLEM
If a design gets to the contractor where a consultant hasn’t done enough with regards to spatial – then that can become a real problem for the contractor. It can be a lot harder to create change and allowances within architecture and structure towards the end of the design. In an ideal world the consultant would flag issues like this early on in concept so that appropriate allowances can be made, and the project can move forward. In an even more ideal world, everyone would be thinking about the end goal: to produce a compliant, constructable and serviceable design.

A FOCUS ON THE CONSTRUCTION
At iingen we work closely with the contractors to achieve the design intent of the consultant in a real-world scenario. For me, this means incorporating contractor selections, modifying reticulation routes, allowing for appropriate service zones, and producing construction drawings to eliminate any nasty surprises on site.