Getting there by design

Project management has long been a tool of the military and the construction industry, and more recently of business, where it is hailed as a coming force. Architects, whose work has always been organised around projects, have been slow to claim it as their own. Design management already appears in engineering, product design, graphics, packaging, management theory and politics, and construction consultants speak of managing design. The author asks when architects will commit to managing design in earnest.

The book takes an architect's perspective on design and project management, treating the two as a single, inseparable subject. It lays out the underlying principles and shows how to apply them in practice. Readers are guided on making project work goal-oriented, establishing a basis for planning and monitoring architectural projects, setting architects' fees on a rational footing, diagnosing the culture of their own practice, and building effective teams. The aim is to put a practice on a more effective footing.

Ken Allinson is an architect in private practice and principal of Architectural Dialogue. He teaches design studio and lectures on design and project management. He was formerly an associate at DEGW London and the Terry Farrell Partnership, and has practised in Europe, the USA and Japan. He is also the author of The Wild Card of Design (1993).