Value Engineering

A structured review of a design to get the same performance for less: a different structural system, a simpler grid, less material in the same member, a foundation that suits the ground better. It starts from what each part of the building has to do and asks for the cheapest way to do it, rather than from what can be taken out.

While the design can still absorb the change, which usually means before tender and ideally before planning. Done after the frame is ordered it tends to save less than it costs to put in place, because anything bought, fabricated or cast is fixed.

It should not be. Cost cutting deletes items or lowers the specification until the number fits. Value engineering keeps what the building has to do and changes how it is done. Fire resistance, durability, robustness and a design that can be certified are never part of the trade.

Whoever designs the alternative. When we propose and design one, we take design responsibility for it and sign for it, including the ancillary certificate under BCAR. When a contractor proposes an alternative of its own design, the responsibility for that design goes with it, and the appointment should say so in writing.

Yes. Developers and contractors bring us schemes drawn by other offices, usually because a tender has come in over budget. We say which alternatives are worth pricing, and where one is taken we design it and sign for it, so the responsibility is never left between two offices.

Where the job is under BCAR and the change affects certified work, yes: the designer of the change certifies it and the assigned certifier has to be told. The earlier a change is made, the less of that there is, which is one more reason to review before commencement.

On a building that repeats and whose design can be fixed early, it usually is, because the saving is in the repetition rather than in the material. On a one off shape, or a design that is still moving, it usually is not, and we will say so.

It is quoted against the drawings and the brief before work starts. Send the current set, the cost plan or tender breakdown and the programme, and the quote will say what the review covers.