Who is the design manager in practice?

Who is the design manager in practice? It is the second article of a series. Articles about design management in architecture practice. In this article, I aim to show the design manager’s field of profession in practice. Many design managers hold other degrees rather than architecture. Also, the type of expertise he should have in design and construction. And what tools and techniques he uses in practice, such as methods and software. Further practice training to handle project design stages.

Engineers from several fields, rather than architecture, hold the position of a design manager. In my previous career work, I worked with different engineers holding design manager positions. One of the firms I worked with, a local firm in Abu Dhabi, had 60 ongoing projects on various scales. Project types include residential, oil and gas, educational, industrial, commercial, and infrastructure. These projects increased my expertise in project design management.

Before I joined the company, the managing director headed the architecture team. Senior architects took the role of project design management. They called me for an interview after downloading my CV from an online job board. The company told me that after a couple of months, you will handle the design manager position (head of department). The managing director, a civil engineer having experience in army engineering work, handled all these 60 projects.

He informed me about the difficulties of doing all that work and the problems he faced with the team’s engineers. Many problems arise in his work with his teams that he cannot solve. They include team communications, engineers’ and architects’ work quality. Also, a delay in doing project tasks and time evaluation for them. Finally, the previous fired design manager’s defects in communication and the engineer’s improper behavior. This design manager, director, and a civil engineer lacked project design management expertise.

Another example, I worked with a Japanese contractor on a design-build contract for an airport in the same city. The mechanical project manager handled all the design manager’s work in construction phase. In the design phase, some problems arose, like mechanical and architectural compliance design issues. Authority approvals issues at the start of the project. The consultant assigned by the company had his complaints about the project design.  Other contractors design alignment with the main design issues. These include piling depth and the soil type bearing issues.   

Here, the project manager, though from the mechanical engineering field, managed to push forward the project. He held meetings with the architectural team bi-weekly and listened to and understood their concerns. This way, he developed great knowledge about architecture work and process. After four months, the company upgraded my position to project design manager. In addition to that position, I handled the sustainability work for the projects till handover. This needed an employee who holds a LEED certificate and Estidama. See Figure 1, site construction photo of the TES tank in Abu Dhabi New Airport.

A leisure and commercial project I worked on, a global village project. A mechanical engineer handled the project, though it does not require a mechanical engineer, but an architect. This project manager successfully managed the processes and monitored the engineering team’s quality. But he had a problem in employing the architecture team. Problems appeared like delays in completing tasks due to the team’s low experience in doing engineering work. The consultant complained about the work presented to him. The company manager was not available in most meetings, but only the project manager.

When I joined, they handed over the project to me to take care of as design manager. I employed a team that balanced the company budget and required experience. Directed the team to the path to prepare the detailed design as per architecture standards and company standards. Also, informed one-on-one guidance on how to estimate the time required to accomplish a task in the design process. I told the team how to coordinate the detailed work with the factory and workshop. Finally, worked with the team till the successful project design management and outcomes delivery.  

Essential elements for a design manager in practice include the type of experience, tools, and techniques of design management. For example, speed work on AutoCAD and knowing ways to prepare drawings. Academics, researchers, and professionals developed many design management methods. For instance, a firm developed a sustainable project appraisal routine. Others like the Total design method, the Sutton effect, and many other methods.  See Figure 2, a presentation graph of the sustainable project appraisal routine.

The design manager in practice handles the firm’s work in terms of time and processes by the project design management plan. Every task has a specific time limit that cannot be extended, but only in special cases. Using the appraisal routine method in design work is not practical or feasible. The method is time-consuming compared to the given average project design time. In either case, a design manager must have experience in all related project design fields. Therefore, using this method becomes useless and not practical. And to apply this method, the design manager must have all that knowledge. MEP and structure and sustainability, to use it to manage work.

He takes care of meeting all the professionals as per the design plan whenever planned or required. This way, a lot of the firm’s work is saved from waste and unnecessary spending. The design manager holds practical knowledge about building systems. How they are built and for that, in the design phase many related design issues the team consider. For example, an architectural design of a building that includes a structural design, including a cantilever of more than 3m, needs to be considered in different structural systems like trusses, Vierendeel, waffle slabs, and decking systems.

Building an architectural design from scratch to handover requires the use of suitable software. Every stage needs different software to fit its needs. A design manager passes all the phases of professional upgrade from junior level to senior level. So he has full knowledge about using many engineering platforms to prepare architectural designs. To mention some, like Microstation, Autocad, Revit, Rhino, Grasshopper, Sketchup, and others. Every software was invented for specific reasons to fit a firm’s daily use.

Revit was developed from AutoCAD and 3dsmax to produce BIM software. BIM makes firms work easier and more accessible to all stakeholders, like clients and contractors. A design manager evaluates what is required for every stage in terms of drawings and documents. What software can assist in producing them, and at what level of quality? See Figure 3, BIM 360 software used in consultancy firms’ work.

It is not apparent in practice from my experience in consultancy work that a design manager must or should be an architect. But to make the work more practical and feasible, it’s better to have an architect design manager. He should handle the design management work and project design management. For many reasons, for example, he possesses the expertise of all the design phases, processes, tools, and techniques to handle the production. He can evaluate professionals and their work because he was in the process before. He can manage competition as one of the main reasons that could cause problems between the staff.

 Design manger will lead the firm and its projects to success. He has the expertise of what the factors are that cause defects in the architectural design. His evaluation of quality work makes him capable of evaluating outsourcing work companies when required. Architects base design managers are better at presenting many stages of architectural design work. For that, reducing the staff required for presentation work. Architects are better to apply, possess, and train staff for many certificates, like LEED, PMP, though not required, and business. A design manager from an architecture base will be a better fit when having a higher degree in business management because his work requires client contact and business development as well as human resource activities. Other related articles you can find in these links ¹