Waters, B L; Dixit, M K and Pariafsai, F (2023) Architects' ranking of professional design services. Architectural Engineering and Design Management, 19(6), pp. 620-641. ISSN 1745-2007
Abstract
The architectural profession in the United States is seeing a growing divide between practitioners and their clients, potentially affecting designers' ability to shape the built environment as part of design and construction teams. Likely due to designers' lack in understanding of client priorities, and clients' misunderstanding of design processes and services, client valuations of architectural design services may differ from those of architects. As part of an effort to discover the differences in architectural design service valuations between these parties, this study uses descriptive and inferential analysis to explore how American architects rank established design services in order of importance, and how they believe their clients rank design services. The design services in this study were extracted from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Documents B101 and B132, standard project agreement forms for owners and architects that include Basic and Supplemental services. Participants were also asked to identify architectural services they believed should be added to the list of services currently included in the AIA documents, and what design services should be excluded. A total of 435 architects responded to the survey, with 85 licensed architects completing the survey. Results show that architects believe their prioritized design services differ slightly from their clients' probable rankings. Most services mentioned by participants as being qualified to be added to the lists of AIA documents services were related to management and design, while participants tended to recommend services related to telecommunications and data design be excluded. More in-depth research may be needed.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | architectural basic services; architectural services; architectural supplementary services; intrinsic value; value of architectural services |
| Index terms: | architect, owner, telecommunication, architectural design, survey, designer, design and construction, documents, design process, architectural service, profession, United States, practitioner, built environment |
| Subjects: | professional development, communication, contractual arrangements, sociology, design methods, infrastructure and transport systems, profession, Geography, practice management, practitioner, institututions, design practice, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Urban Studies, Geographical Context, Design Practice, Information Management, Engineering Principles, Stakeholder Management, Procurement, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here