Last edited 05 Mar 2018

Specialist designer for construction projects

As buildings become increasingly complicated, it is more and more common for specialists to be required to design particular aspects.

Specialist designers may be:

Contractors or suppliers appointed in the first instance to carry out design and subsequently to carry out the works on site or to supply goods or services.
Appointed by the client to carry out design and then perhaps to monitor works on site.
Sub-consultants to a member of the consultant team.

Where specialist designers are contractors or suppliers, they may be appointed through a two-stage tender process where the specialist design services are procured in the first stage along with agreed rates, overheads and profit for the the products or services to be supplied in the second stage. The specialist designer might then become a named sub-contractor or nominated sub-contractor, or a named supplier in the main contract. In some cases, this second stage appointment might be made direct by the client (for example for the supply of equipment outside of the scope of the main contract).

A design co-ordinator might be appointed within the consultant team to ensure proper integration and co-ordination of specialist designs into the overall design.

On publicly-funded projects, OJEU procurement rules may apply to the appointment of a specialist designers if the potential cost of either the first or second stage contract exceeds the relevant threshold.