It's All About Building

The design-build process allows clients and contractors to achieve greater efficiency than they would by using more traditional approaches to construction. Some projects are more ideal than others for this system. If you have a project similar to one of the following four, there's a good chance it may go better using design-build principles.

Repeatable Designs

Developers are usually particularly able to leverage the advantages of design-build contracting. By developing a handful of basic designs for structures, they can maximize efficiency by asking the contractor to repeat the process. They can accumulate significant inventories of materials, often allowing them to achieve economies of scale, too.

Most developments go up on well-prepared lands. This makes it easier to fit designs to the properties because they tend to not require further civil engineering work. Similarly, the utilities for a development are usually in place at once so you won't have to fiddle with getting companies to turn them on as each structure goes up.

Short Turnarounds

Folks looking for quick turnarounds on projects will likely want to look closely at design-build options. The process places all design work with the contracting firm. Consequently, you can usually get from the design phase into the construction process quickly. Even if a part of the job will require a long lead, you'll still be able to identify and address it sooner.

Design-build firms typically have team members who handle many tasks, and they also leverage established relationships with subcontractors for jobs they can't do in-house. This speeds up the process of assigning tasks to different participants.

Simplified Construction

While there is a lot of room for customization, the design-build approach typically favors jobs that don't have massive architectural and engineering challenges. If you know the proposed building won't implement radical architectural ideas, it will likely lend itself well to doing design and construction work through a single firm. This can streamline the design and building processes significantly because the team will spend less time trying to adapt to evolving requirements.

Low-Conflict Projects

Generally, the design-build approach works best when there aren't many potential conflicts on a job. A development firm with one decision-maker, for example, can usually roll quickly with design-build principles.

Similarly, many individual homeowners will tend to find the low-conflict nature of the process appealing. The approach works especially well for folks who don't have to fight with institutions over financing.

For more information on design-build, contact a professional near you.