Better Public Buildings

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has made its first public appearance on its role in public procurement. The conference on 'Building for the Future' held on 6 February in London brought together Ministers from the DETR the FCO, the DCMS and the Treasury plus top architects and leaders of public procurement.

The government has appointed design champions in every department. This, together with its many policy papers and the creation of CABE prove to Paul Finch that the present government means business with high quality design. The Prime Minister's personal interest in good design is confirmed by his new Award for the best public building. Besides aesthetic qualities and competent integration into its surroundings, the building has to provide user satisfaction and sustainability in the form of lifecosts and overall added value for money.

Putting people first in the urban renaissance mattered to Beverley Hughes. Public buildings should take the lead in sending out strong messages about the value for money of good design. The DETR is experimenting with demonstration projects to transfer experience to other client organisations. Stakeholders are responsible together to produce quality and maximise the whole lifecycle of buildings and places. This requires cultural change: clients have to be committed, the public informed, the building industry equipped with better skills, the design professionals working in partnerships.

Andrew Smith from the Treasury accepted that better design could reduce lifecosts of buildings and the need for services. Clear fiscal rules could assist long term budgeting to obtain best value for buildings and public services over their lifecycle. Good urban design is an economic necessity as it could pay for itself because buildings would last longer and property and land values would increase. Good specifications, integrated design and construction teams and partnerships with the private sector (PFI) should improve public buildings and their maintenance.

Norman Foster's sections through 'iceberg' diagrams showed that in certain circumstances urban design could more than pay for itself and even bring higher returns on investment, besides environmental dividends Considering that heating and cleaning constitute 21% of building costs over its lifecycle it makes sense to invest in better materials and energy efficient devices. More impressively, if 1% can be economised in staff related costs (which are typically 86% for an office) through good design over the building's lifecycle, it would mean that 15% more would be available for initial capital expenditure which could go towards good design and possibly produce 'free' buildings. Foster distinguished between social values and resource value embedded in creativity, time and client leadership. Quality of life relates to the whole built environment and should be included in sustainable design thinking. Higher densities which also consume less land could reduce wasteful energy consumption and pollution. Foster's own buildings showed that high quality of design can be achieved in the real world and reduce running cost, improve quality of life not least through their beauty.

Fred Manson presented examples of local government procurement with Will Alsop who designed the Peckham public library. The audience was bewildered by Alsop's view that as a renaissance architect he should do everything with the client, dispensing of all other obfuscating agents of gloom and doom and planners. He should design the brief as well and discuss the project with people to prevent objections and thus shorten the planning process.

Manson emphasized that the success of the Peckham library was due to the design process which widened the social programme for the library. The challenge for the client is to get ideas across whilst engaging with society and accepting that the library and its users were the effective client. The task of politicians is to add values whilst the design team has to add value.

The afternoon session discussed best practices. Naomi Eisenstadt, head of the SureStart Unit showed how good design of small scale projects could alleviate child poverty. Kate Priestley explained how she was handling the NHS' £ 7 b capital investment by 2010. Richard Feilden discussed better design for a £ 100 b programme of educational buildings.

Alan Howarth, responded to many ideas put forward during the conference from the rostrum as well as from the hall. He also offered to take up proposals with ministerial colleagues and push the idea of good urban design across governmental decision making.

His Ministry had taken the lead on good urban design. The problem now was to achieve consistency between the ministries. CABE has a creative impact on national life. It is instrumental in producing good design guides. It may even have influenced the personal commitment of the Prime Minister to better urban design and public buildings, which he considers the hallmark of civilised government. However, good design cannot be achieved by dictate. It requires client commitment, briefs as living documents and good design teams. A shift is necessary from the public duty request of cheapest price to best value. Good design will pay for itself as it is saving on running costs. Top down leadership is needed to change attitudes as regards urban design quality of large public investment, akin to Victorian forebears. It is a matter of rehabilitating the concept of the public realm. Architecture and buildings in a well integrated context should have all the qualities of efficiency, functionality and beauty. They should give pleasure and civic pride.

Judith Ryser

For full transcription, see CABE website: www.cabe.org.uk