The role of the Executive Architect
Lees Associates are finding that we are being asked with increasing frequency to act in the position of Executive Architect on a variety of projects, both in the residential and commercial sectors. Perhaps it is our focus on technical design and delivery, the care and attention to detail that we put into our design information or our willingness to deliver the highest quality for our clients regardless of whether the concept design is our own or not. We see this as a fantastic endorsement of us as a practice that can be trusted and relied on as a safe pair of hands to pull complex multi-disciplinary designs together and see projects across the line.
But… what exactly is an Executive Architect, and what do they do?
LEAD DESIGNER OR EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT?
The name “Lead Designer” can be misleading and is often confused with the aesthetic design role. All projects should have a designated Lead Designer, usually the Architect. It is their responsibility to ensure the coordination of the overall project design across all disciplines.
The name “Executive Architect” is probably less ambiguous. It refers to a supporting Architect who assists the concept designer, whether another Architect or an Interior Designer, on all technical and coordination matters.
But when both roles are performed by the same company the role is best summarised as a “Co-ordinating Designer”. The main function of the role is to coordinate the aesthetic, technical, services and structural aspects of the design (and usually to produce the coordinated technical design drawings).
WHY USE AN EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT?
An Executive Architect is often used to support an Interior Designer or design-focused Architect for the following reasons:
The Designer doesn’t have Professional Indemnity Insurance to cover the complexity of some projects, usually ones which include special challenges such as structural issues, or where a client’s contents or building insurance may require it. (Lees Associates have full Professional Indemnity Insurance up to a value of £5 million and Public Indemnity coverage to £10 million.)
The designer may wish to concentrate solely on the aesthetic side of the design and leave the detailed and/or technical design to others.
The designer’s skills are not best suited to certain aspects of the job; their focus is on how a design looks, the Executive Architect’s is more on how it is constructed and performs.
The designer might be from overseas and may not have sufficient knowledge of UK Building Regulations, Contract or Construction Law, or may not speak English to an appropriate standard.
The technical design can often be achieved more quickly and economically by someone more experienced and specialist at that task.
The Executive Architect can free the designer’s aesthetic mind from many of the more mundane tasks on a project.
WHAT CAN AN EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT HELP WITH?
Typically an Executive Architect’s scope can include:
Planning Applications including Listed Building Approvals
Permissions (landlord, freeholder, other stakeholders, Party Walls etc)
Coordination of services/structural design
Quality Control, both of the design and the quality of workmanship and execution on site
Technical drawings and specifications (we can complete projects from just a few sketches but the relationship and project is most successful when we work hand in hand with the designer from the outset)
BIM management (not yet widely exploited in our market but this will inevitably become more widely used in the near future). Lees Associates design all of our projects in BIM.
The Lead Designer aspect of the role typically involves co-ordinating a number of the following tasks:
site surveys
project brief
preparation of designs and specifications
integration of specialist aspects of the design and their interfaces into the overall design
internal and external consultations and design reviews
defining the form and content of design information to be prepared
reporting to the client on design matters and seeking approvals
preparation of schedules of inspections, tests, mock ups and samples
consultations, negotiations and submissions to planning authorities and other statutory and non-statutory authorities
preparation of tender documentation and reviewing submissions
quality control systems
issue of production information to contractors and reviewing designs prepared by contractors
procedures for inspections, commissioning, testing and client training
Sometimes the Executive Architect role extends to Project Management, Contract Administration and Principal Designer.
All of these can be time consuming and sometimes best done away from the intricacies of the aesthetic design.
RESPONSIBILITIES
It is vital to be clear about the split of design responsibilities and the design information to be produced by each party.
We prepare and agree a Responsibility Matrix that clarifies who will be responsible for each element of the design and who will be providing what information. Sometimes we agree a % split for specific areas of work that cannot be entirely separated.
The agreed scope then needs to be accurately reflected in the Professional Services Contracts.
There will usually be some grey areas in the level of responsibility. For drawings, it is best to exchange some examples of drawings showing levels of detail to clarify the expectations of each party.
Sometimes a designer’s concept looks great on paper but cannot technically work. In this case the Executive Architect must seek a compromise arrangement to the designer’s approval.
A close eye must also be kept on the budget.
CDM REGULATIONS (2015)
Under the regulations, all designers involved in a notifiable project, which now also includes private residential, at any stage from concept to completion have a legal duty to consider and manage any risks of the project.
The Principal Designer’s role is to ensure that all designers discharge this duty by providing appropriate design risk assessments, which are coordinated into a Pre-construction Information document and issued to the contractor at tender stage.
Designers often believe that their responsibility as designer under CDM can be passed on to a Lead Designer acting as “Principal Designer”.
This is not the case - under the regulations, all designers involved in a notifiable project from concept to completion have a legal duty to consider and manage the risks of the project.
However when we act as Principal Designer we are able to guide less familiar designers through the necessary process.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING AN EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT?
The client can procure a fantastic, co-ordinated design economically and with more certainty on cost, programme and quality
The aesthetic-focused designer can enjoy designing more projects to a higher level of success and not waste time on lower value and specialist tasks that they are not best suited to
The Executive Architect/Lead Designer can enjoy working with a range of talented designers on beautiful and successful projects.
The Executive Architect can be employed directly by the client or through the Designer, offered as an add-on service.
Having developed a strong reputation for quality of design information and project delivery, Lees Associates started acting as Executive Architect about twenty years ago in the retail and commercial sectors.
This led to us performing the role in the residential market too, and a large proportion of our workload is now acting in this capacity.
Over our 38 years, Lees Associates have been lucky to work with many talented designers on a vast array of projects. In all cases, we seek to quickly establish an easy working relationship built on trust; to an outsider we should appear to be an in-house team.
“It’s all based on human nature and our inborn willingness to help: if we see we can help and we know how to do it, it’s actually a pleasure”