Making the case for good design in public building

Tessa Jowell, culture secretary, explores the concept of good design within the confines of budget and timescale constraints.

Introduction

Thank you to John Sorrell for inviting me to open this first National Design Champion Conference. He mentioned that 136 Local Authorities still don't have a design champion; I hope that in the course of today we can make 136 resolutions to put that right. Another reason for being here today is of course to launch the new edition of Better Public Building and I hope today that we can use that publication to help bridge the gulf between our ambitions and aspirations for world class design and the pressures that threaten to marginalise it.

I'd also like to pay the warmest possible tribute to CABE. In a few short years, CABE's Design Review Panel and Enabling Programme have helped to influence and improve more than 3,700 buildings and spaces in and around the country. And in the process, CABE has helped to transform the nature of the debate about good design, and get the commitment of high-quality design into the nation's blood stream.

Progress made

Today, very few people believe that good design is an optional extra for public buildings, he message has been accepted even in Whitehall . It's a mark of CABE's very successful advocacy that we are well on the way to winning that argument

CABE's work with the Office of Government Commerce has ensured that good design is now a core requirement in public procurement.

And we have ensured that Planning Policy now states unequivocally that good design and good planning are one and the same thing. Today, CABE has been joined by Architecture and Design Scotland and the Design Commission for Wales .

Better Public Buildings established the practice of having Design Champions in the public sector. Delivering design quality at a local level requires strong local leadership.

As a case in point, the Prime Minister's annual Award for Better Public Buildings, which is jointly sponsored by CABE and the OGC, attracted a record number of entries this year.

These are just some of the milestones and achievements being celebrated in the pages of the new Better Public Building , and you can see the difference it's making in pretty much every town or city: from housing estates where the crime level has dropped (I had the great pleasure of happening to coincide with CABE on a campaigning visit to Angell Town, Brixton. CABE were there to present an award to the team who had spent 10 years transforming the community into a place where people want to live and had built a testament to the virtue of good design); through to birth centres that have been designed around the needs of women; or schools where the children climb up the building, as they begin each new year as a mark of growing seniority.

Design and design champions

Design is not an add-on but instrumental to social and economic well-being. Physical and social regeneration are interlinked: a low quality environment is associated with social exclusion. Good buildings and places can promote inclusion and civic pride.

Design quality is an objective, not a subjective, value. Like music, art and literature there are clear standards of excellence that can be measured and evaluated at a global scale (eg. the Stirling Prize, RIBA awards and the Pritzker Prize).

The next generation of public buildings in the UK should set new standards of design excellence that stand up to the best examples in the US , Australia or Barcelona in Spain - the London 2012 Olympics will be absolutely central to this effort .

Public clients and local authorities need to rediscover the art of being a good client - and design champions have a fundamental role to play in this. We need to make more of the best design expertise available on the demand side (design experts working with the client) and on the supply side (making best use of considerable design talents in UK and abroad).

Apart from investing in design training and skills, local government clients should take advantage of what is available in the market - individuals, private practices, design mentors, design-aware developers and national organisations like CABE and RIBA.

To be effective, design - and design champions - needs to be embedded in the entire procurement and delivery process; from inception to realisation of a project.

Design is an iterative process; not a one-off, box-ticking exercise. This means setting clear design visions, writing good design briefs; running well-managed competitions and upholding quality through the detailed design and delivery process - whatever procurement method is used.

Design competitions are an excellent way of delivering buildings of high quality, on time and on budget. There, of course, many types. Open competitions, two-stage design contests, competitive interviews and restricted competitions for younger architects. We should use these different types of competitions properly - following the guidance provided by CABE, the RIBA and the GLA - with the majority of design professionals on the jury.

Good design is about the manipulation of form, scale, materials, proportion, light and the creation of beauty and lasting value. It is a holistic process that recognises that a building is part of a hierarchy of public spaces and experiences: from the smallest building block, to the front door, the street, the square, the neighbourhood and the city.

The Georgian streets and squares of London or Edinburgh, Brighton's elegant terraces or Nash's Royal Crescent in Bath are examples of this great British urban tradition that unifies buildings and places. Our challenge is to procure their contemporary equivalents.

The role of the good public client is to ensure that a public buildings and places are not considered in isolation, but as pieces of a larger urban whole that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.

Striking the right balance

But, speaking from my experience as the Government's Design Champion, there is still the challenge of ensuring high quality design, while accepting financial realities and meeting difficult timescales. I accept that it's not always easy, for example, to unpick the question of cost from that of value for money. And no-where is this tension more pronounced than with the Olympics. But I am satisfied that - even with a project on that scale - it can be done.

As design champions, we all face similar challenges. Whatever the part of the public realm, from stadia to schools to fire stations to prisons, the issues are the same. I hope that, just as the Olympics should be a shop-window for British design and architectural innovation, the way we manage the build of the Park can provide a blueprint for making good design a permanent part of the public realm.

The Olympic Challenge

I just want to demonstrate the sheer scale of what we are going to do in London 2012. It's going to be the largest public construction project in Europe ; the equivalent to building two Terminal 5s in half the time. London 2012 is also going to be the engine driving the regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley . In six short years, we are making a long-term investment that local residents will have to live with for a lifetime.

How can it be done?

So how do we balance the imperative for good design with the need to get the facilities built within budget, and to a very challenging deadline?

First, we need to think about how design quality can be delivered through the procurement process for the Olympics. We need to include design aspirations in the project briefs alongside cost and delivery targets (a building is more than its technical specification); each building/venue must be considered as part of a 'piece of city' not just an object. I think that should designers to be encouraged to integrate with the wider urban context and think of how their buildings and their surroundings will work throughout the year (on a cold February morning as well as a summer's evening). It's clear that the resolution of the temporary/permanent nature of some of the venues is a design issue not just a logistical one. But if we get the selection process right, these issues can be resolved because good architects respond to good briefs and good juries with respected design professionals - think of Tate Modern or the Aquatic Centre.

I want to ensure that we choose a design procurement route that stimulates design quality not stifles it, and one that genuinely opens up the Olympics to a range of talented designers from the UK and abroad . That is why we will use a range of competition types - competitive interviews as well as two-stage design competitions. We might also use one off competitions for smaller structures like bridges and electricity substations reserved for younger practices.

I want to see interest generated through press and media campaign not just through required but prosaic OJEU procedures; we should be creative about involving other groups and maximising public awareness and support. We must ensure that a winning design scheme is 'protected' by the client during detailed design and delivery stage. This means keeping an open dialogue between ODA and selected architects after the selection process to mediate and resolve conflicts.

I hope that we are on course to meet those aspirations.

I certainly know that David Higgins and his team at the ODA are getting expert advice from a number of different sources, including the design review panel run by CABE and the GLA's Architecture and Urbanism group. CABE will be responsible for scrutinising all the individual designs at key stages of development; where changes are required, CABE will not be afraid to ask for them.

There has been considerable debate about how we deliver design quality for the Olympics if we are going to use Design & Build for so many of the venues, and how we balance design aspirations against the need to stick rigorously to time and budget constraints.

I have listened to the comments from the profession and the industry. I am convinced that we can get the balance right as long as the ODA acts as an enlightened client all the way through the procurement, design and delivery process - acting as a custodian of good design not just as a delivery agent. At the heart of this approach must be a belief that design adds value rather than cost to a project of this entity, ambition and scale.

This is why we have added design expertise at the top of the ODA, with Nicholas Serota acting as Design Champion at Board level and Ricky Burdett as Principal Design Adviser. And more expertise will be bought in and wired into the decision-making process.

In particular, I am keen that respected architects and design professionals are involved in the selection process of all designers for the venues and associated structures- whether its Design & Build or not - alongside the technical and management experts. It is critical for the ODA to have an overview of design quality as we work with the best in the construction industry to deliver our buildings within agreed costs and programmes.

I have asked the ODA to come back with proposals on the different types of design competitions that we can use - within current regulations for public projects - that genuinely open up the Olympics to national and international design talent. I know they have been taking excellent advice from the RIBA, CABE and experts in the industry to explore options for the other venues that will be procured next year.

But as well as consulting the experts, I want to see communities involved in the design decisions that will affect them.

That is why, when we launch the design competition for the Velopark, we will also be launching a competition for schools, and encouraging young people to tell us what sort of facilities would inspire them to take up BMXing, or mountain biking.

Conclusion

There is an enormous amount of work still to be done. But, as I saw from my recent visit to Barcelona - a city which has literally been transformed by hosting the Games, where 14 years on, new buildings and open spaces are still being built, inspired by the Olympic momentum of 1992 - of all the prizes on offer come 2012, the legacy the Games will leave behind is the biggest one of all. Our challenge is to do exactly the same, if not to better Barcelona .

But now I want to get back to you, the Design Champions. I know all of you face the same challenges every day. Across the country there are projects - although perhaps not on this same scale, but they are equally as important to local communities, and equally as important to get right. I want the 136 councils who currently don't have a Design Champion should get on and get one. The risk is that without these design champions, this period of unprecedented investment in public buildings such as schools, hospitals and community venues will be a source of regret rather than an opportunity to build better, happier communities. It is those who are bloody-minded about good design, those who are grit in the system, ensuring excellence in design is never forgotten, who will maintain real quality in the bloodstream of building in Britain . We must ensure that the benefits of the Olympics extend to the UK , but so too should the discipline of good design. And this will happen through the commitment, vision and leadership of the army of Design Champions across the county.

I believe in the adage - 'never take no for an answer'. It's not easy, because design champions will always be faced with people who want to stand in their way whether through cost concerns or timing difficulties. But we have the evidence to show that these problems can be overcome and we will see that replicated around the country by 2012. Thank you, to all Design Champions for what you've done, and be assured that you continue to have my and CABE's support.