Contractors voice dissatisfaction with architects

Nearly half of contractors are dissatisfied with the performance of architects that work for them and less than one in five are satisfied that their designers can stick to the programme, according to the latest RIBA client survey.

The findings come from the “Working with Architects” survey, which are published in the report What Clients think of Architects, and highlight how architects are perceived by construction clients in terms of the services they provide and design quality of the buildings.

A total of 958 clients participated of which a third were contractors, a third private domestic clients and a third commercial.

The survey showed that, overall, 51% of contractors were very or fairly satisfied with their architects compared with 76% of private domestic clients and 73% from the commercial sector.

Scores from contractor clients fell below those from commercial and domestic in all categories, particularly around the design and construction process. This includes understanding clients’ needs, managing the handover process and adhering to programme – where only 18% of contractors said they were satisfied with the performance of their architects.

Paul Nash, president of the CIOB, which supported the survey, said: “There’s an expectation gap between what architects do best and what contractors want them to do. The contracting side is all about risk management.

“Contractors give their clients a guarantee and sign a contract based on a fixed date of completion and a fixed price. Where it is reasonable to do so, they want to reduce, remove or transfer that risk. It’s a huge generalisation, but I’m not convinced that architects understand this. But it is key to explaining some of the behaviours we see in project teams.”

Dale Sinclair, RIBA ambassador for collaboration and technical Advancement, said: “Architects frequently work for contractors after they have been novated to the role on design and build projects. As part of better conveying design status, novated architects need to disclose more detail on design risks with the contractor’s perspective in mind.”

Client satisfaction ratings

Former RIBA president and current RIBA Ambassador for Clients Stephen Hodder MBE said: “These findings are an interesting body of intelligence for the profession and the RIBA. The results show the need for even closer collaboration between our profession and our clients; they present positive learning points for agile architects.”

Nigel Ostime of Hawkins/Brown, chair of the RIBA Client Liaison Group, led the survey. He said: “This survey follows on from the qualitative research summarised in the 2015 Client & Architect – developing the essential relationship report. How we are perceived is crucially important for our long-term commercial and professional wellbeing and we encourage all our members to look carefully at this report.”

The headline findings for all clients are:

• Clients were overall pleased with their projects – Clients were highly satisfied with their buildings. Three-quarters of private domestic and commercial clients, and just over half of contractors, were either “very” or “quite” satisfied with their projects.

• Architects were more highly rated than non-architects – Architects achieve higher client satisfaction ratings than non-architects in all performance measures, particularly for developing and interpreting the brief.

• Architects’ design skills were highly rated – Clients were highly satisfied by their projects’ aesthetic and other design qualities (such as levels of daylight, room dimensions, ease of circulation, and so on) and their architects’ abilities to meet the brief.

• Process management skills were less highly rated – Clients consistently rated architects’ process management skills lower than their design skills.