Technical design; not just a bolt-on
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Tony Riddle, our Technical Lead, shares his thoughts on the importance of detailed design as he takes up his new role.
Having recently been promoted to the role of Technical Lead in the practice, I was asked to take a moment to reflect on what I wanted this new opportunity to encompass, and how I could use it to drive company standards forward.
Technical reviews need to be part of the design process
From my experience, the technical review of project work is always acknowledged as being important but, in reality, everyone dreads it. Our technical design information determines the success of our buildings, articulates our sustainable design approach, and the satisfaction of our clients. Therefore, it’s important that issued information is robustly reviewed, concise and thorough. In actual practise, it’s easy to see the technical review as another hurdle to clear, whilst pushing towards an inevitable deadline. However, the review does not need to be seen in that way.
The mantra of “that’s what we did last time” should never be preferred to “what is the most suitable this time”. We need to learn lessons from past projects on site, from our contracting colleagues and suppliers, and use this to continually improve our output. Without this we risk passing a problem from one project to the next, or from one colleague to another.
Increasing the value of technical input
To change this, we reconsidered the value and purpose behind the technical review of a project and asked some fundamental questions; When is this advice best received? What form should that review take? From my perspective, the best way is to include this technical input earlier and to make it more accessible. Rather than defer the resolution of an issue until later, during a project’s documentation period, you can have a quick chat earlier in the process to establish a strategy to address key details and technical challenges. This also helps inform the design, creating a better understanding across the Practice and improves the efficiency of project delivery.
This has been implemented by including technical input alongside design reviews, or as early as practicable, which are then continued throughout the project. By considering technical needs at an early stage, it highlights areas of concern or risk, thus allowing further thought and rigour to be applied in plenty of time. This assistance is available from several different technical staff members at any point in time on a project. By running an open technical review checklist on a project, points can be added and crossed off as the project progresses rather than just at the review.
Learning lessons and sharing our knowledge
We are also making more use of “lessons learnt” workshops within the practice as part of our standard project review process, analysing the challenges on the project and how they were addressed. Perhaps it was innovation by a contractor, an ingenious approach that helped the project programme or a well-articulated solution to a difficult detail. Whatever we learn can then be fed back to all staff through CPDs and staff workshops.
Hopefully by doing all this we remove the stigma and fear of a one-stop technical review. Here at SRA, it is seen as part of the natural progression of the project, a key element of the design process that is essential to us achieving a great result for all involved.
Technical reviews are something I will continue to champion within the Practice, but there is so much more to develop in this role, such as “how do we further integrate sustainability in our technical design?” or “how do we get best practise from repeat clients?” But they are topics for another time and another blogpost.