Soft Landings Driven Design Management process: Achieving sustainability in a school building in the UK

One of the challenges facing the industry is closing the energy performance gap in non-residential buildings. Despite various recommendations and introduction of new technology, the problem remains widespread. Debate on how designers and architects can contribute to finding solutions to this problem continues. Soft Landings has been on the forefront of encouraging the delivery of buildings where estimated energy targets align with actual targets. This paper investigates the working processes of a Soft Landings design team; using Interviews, walk-throughs and contract documentation of the project. The paper explores the design management side in a Soft Landings process. How end users and sub-contractors were involved during the design stage of the project and how decisions taken affected the outcome of the project. The study discovers that learning from past projects plays an important role for new projects in achieving their goals with respect to energy efficiency and sustainability. Participation of the end users need to be coordinated to maximise their advantage without sacrificing time and cost. Additionally, practical implications are presented for architects about the involvement of end users in a Soft Landings project.