Soft Landings - Who Should Pay?

Despite fierce competition from Great British Bake Off and a damp-spirited forecast, attendees at Nicholas Hare Architects' World Green Building Week event were captivated by a wide range of opinions and approaches, in response to the question: Soft Landings - who should pay? Speakers came from Morgan Sindall, Willmott Dixon, Hoare Lea, Architype and LSE.

Above all, there was widespread agreement that much of the Soft Landings process, at least up to practical completion, should be an integral part of good design. It was, however, recognised that making available and training the right calibre FM staff is crucial. Beyond completion, and particularly after the first year in use, fine-tuning offers proven benefits for the client in terms of operating costs and energy use, but this is specialist work that takes time and all our speakers accepted warrants a fee. The excellent presentations (more) were followed by a healthy debate that more than made up for GBBO.