Good design needs procurement that values more than price

Construction procurement has long been dominated by one question: who can deliver it for the least money. The answer is easy to measure, easy to compare and easy to defend to a board. In practice, lowest-cost tendering rarely gives the lowest cost. It tends to produce buildings that cost more to run, are harder to adapt and fail sooner.

Value-based procurement, which the industry is starting to adopt, asks a different question: what delivers the most value over time.

Where design creates value

Design is often treated as a matter of form, style and image. It is also the basis of value-based procurement, because design decisions set the costs and benefits a building carries for decades.

• Whole-life cost: spending a little more up front on insulation or glazing can cut operating costs for decades.
• Adaptability: flexible floorplates and demountable partitions extend a building’s life and reduce cycles of demolition and rebuilding.
• Wellbeing: natural light, acoustic control and well-planned layouts reduce absence in schools and offices and improve health outcomes in housing.

A lowest-price tender rarely captures any of this, though each benefit is real and can be measured.

Frameworks that support value-based decisions

Several frameworks now help clients and designers make decisions on value:

• BSI Flex 390: a way to build value-based procurement into projects, so teams consider whole-life impacts.
• The Four Capitals model from Constructing Excellence: widens the definition of value to include produced, natural, social and human capital.
• The Construction Leadership Council’s Procuring for Value initiative: encourages transparent measures of performance beyond cost.
• PAS 8700: the UK’s first design and assurance standard for modern methods of construction (MMC) in residential projects. It gives clients confidence that MMC solutions are safe and will stand up over time.

Taken together, they move the test of design away from appearance and towards the value it creates over time, for a place and the people who live there. We look at PAS 8700 in more detail in PAS 8700 and the rise of the MMC adviser.

The architect’s part

Architects work where the client’s vision, technical feasibility and long-term stewardship of a building meet. Design choices often decide whether a project delivers value:

• A building that saves 10% on capital cost but locks in 50 years of high maintenance is poor value.
• A housing scheme that maximises density but ignores how it fits into the community is poor value.
• A school that comes in on budget but holds back teaching is poor value.

The procurement system has to change, and so do architects. We need to show clients, with evidence, how design creates measurable value.

A change of culture as well as contract

Moving from lowest price to value goes further than new contract terms. Clients have to think long term, supply chains have to collaborate earlier, and architects have to explain their decisions in terms of outcomes rather than appearance. Good design is intentional.

Every line we draw is a choice that carries cost, consequence and opportunity.

Procurement reform will not deliver better outcomes on its own, and neither will brilliant design cut off from commercial reality. Together they can produce buildings that serve people, places and the planet. Architecture by Design works to make that connection clear, because when procurement values more than cost, design can deliver value that lasts.