Delivering Architectural Quality in Design-Build and PPP Projects

Major bridge structures have a significant visual impact. Such prominent components of our built environment should be designed to be visually pleasing and there is increasing public attention on the aesthetics of bridge structures. At the same time, the current trend in procurement is for many, if not the majority, of such projects to be built through some form of design-build or public private partnership (PPP) process whereby the final design of the project is carried out by a private entity responsible for paying for the cost of construction. This kind of procurement process does not naturally lend itself to delivering a finished product of high aesthetic quality. This paper describes why this is the case and then demonstrates how the procurement process can be refined to bring the quality of the aesthetics under the control of the owner.