New ‘wikipedia’ for project managers launched

Experienced construction industry professionals are being invited to share their knowledge of pre-construction with the rising generation of project managers in a new free website resource based on “user-generated content”. 

The Wikipedia-style website www.designingbuildings.co.uk is the brainchild of David Trench FCIOB, well-known in the industry as completion director for the British Library, and later site and structures director for the New Millennium Experience Company.

Now 70 and retired, Trench has worked with a small team to set up the website and create the first 350 articles, and is hoping that other individuals with many year’s experience will now contribute their knowledge and expertise to the site.

Speaking to Construction Manager, Trench said: “There’s a lot of terrific seasoned professionals out there, and often they retire and take their experience away. So we ought to try and capture it before it disappears, and pass the information onto a new generation, who’re often given considerable responsibility [for running projects] early in their careers.”

“It will be one place where you can find everything you need – the information is out there, but it’s often held by the [professional] institutions and you have to pay for it.”

Articles will be moderated by Trench and a small team of collaborators for relevance and objectivity before they are published.

The site also has three corporate sponsors – Buro Happold, Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners and Development Securities – who have uploaded content produced in-house and will also contribute to the £50 000 a year running costs of the site. Trench is now hoping to attract around five more sponsors for the site, as well as advertisers for the individual pages.

The website is aimed at all professionals involved in pre-construction, and covers the various steps taken before the project gets on site, such as design development, planning applications, cost-planning, selecting the procurement route and tendering.

After a stint lecturing at Reading’s College of Estate Management, Trench says he felt that the decisions taken pre-site are given insufficient weighting on industry training programmes.  

Also, the site hopes to address a lack of awareness of other professions’ roles and the key interfaces. “We’re very fragmented as an industry, and much of the work is published by institutions who want to keep it for their own members – there aren’t a lot of cross-party forums.”