CABE advice could help prevent mediocre buildings

The Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment (CABE) believes there will no longer be excuses for delivering mediocre buildings if clients follow its latest guide.

Creating Excellent Buildings: A Guide for Clients, launched today (Tuesday) highlights 10 key factors crucial to the success of any building project and insists that every project needs a client committed to design, and able to balance the pressures of cost, time and quality.

The guide also outlines the client's role in delivering design quality for their building projects and should help them to deliver buildings that meet, or even surpass, their expectations, for design quality.

CABE commissioner Nicholas Serota said: "This is a much needed guide for clients undertaking a building project. When you have a team, make sure that you have a very, very clear channel of communication to that team. Don't expect them to resolve the difficulties and differences within your own team. Give them clear instructions. Don't change your mind too often. And have some fun!'

The Creating Excellent Buildings: A Guide for Clients provides 240 pages of information and takes clients through each stage of the process of delivering a building: prepare, design, construct and use, and they can ensure design quality through their decisions and actions.