Fast and Innovative Delivery of High Performance Building: Design-build Delivers with Less Owner Liability

Abstract

This article argues that sustainability and high performance design
and construction are best delivered through the design-build contracting
method.
Sustainability is predicated on innovative design and a life cycle
approach to project planning. High performance design and construc-
tion requires a systemic approach to design and construction. The de-
sign-build method of infrastructure delivery capitalizes on the synergy
between the designer and builder, rather than exacerbating the tradi-
tional antagonism between designers and builders common with the
design-bid-build method. Taken together, sustainability, high perfor-
mance, and design-build concepts are all founded on the principle of
performance specifications.
In further argument for design-build, the owner is no longer at risk
for the “implied warranty” for design accuracy and receiving only “sub-
stantial” compliance in its delivered facility. The owner is vulnerable to
both with design-bid-build.
Thus, in the new sustainable and high performance environ-
ment, design-build is the contracting and project delivery method of
choice.