Manfred Grohmann, director and founder of the construction and engineering bureau "Bollinger + Grohman", held a master class, where he once again proved an already well-known fact - today everything is possible for the Western construction industry. The fantasy of Peter Cook, Frank Gehry, Lars Spybrook, Coop Himmelb (l) au. UFA in Dresden, BMW headquarters in Munich, JVC entertainment complex in Guadalajara, Info-Box in Berlin, KPMG office in Leipzig and Braun in Kronberg are projects shown by Grohmann. Now his bureau is engaged in calculating the structures of the new building of the Mariinsky Theater - they are increasing the transparency of the cocoon from 50% to a higher indicator. The formula of a famous engineer's relationship with customers is to minimize customer fears. The formula for relations with architects is the unconditional subordination of their calculations to the flight of their imagination. “Where am I, and where is Cook,” said Manfred Grohmann, “I’m just an engineer,” and showed, bringing his thumb and forefinger together, something small. Paradise disposition.
Mark Tovve, head of the Rakurs experimental design studio, defined the role of the architect-designer in the relationship with the customer: "To provide a meeting of two individuals: the individuality of the place and the individuality of the owner." At the same time, the position of the architect, as Tovve noted, is deeply secondary and should be flexible enough. He recommended starting a discussion of the project of a future building or interior by asking the question “how to make this space better” and looking for an answer to it. The primacy in conversations about style, materials, technology leads, in his opinion, the process to a dead end. Best of all, according to Tovve, it works in a customer-friend situation. If this is also not just a psychological attitude, but the reality of human relations, it is possible to trace the fate of the projected space, then how it settles in, which of the techniques create special comfort, like the owners, etc. And take into account the knowledge gained in communication and in the guest experience when working on other objects. Gaby Rottes, an architect and head of the commercial department at Dupont, was in solidarity with the Russian colleague. She noted the establishment of friendly relations with the client as a determining factor in productive business communication.
Anna Odorenko, Lead Architect at NBBJ Russia, spoke about the importance of the pre-contractual phase of interaction between a developer and an architect. The main condition for the successful implementation of the project is the initial definition of the role of the architect in its design and implementation. There are five components here: a description of the project (what we call in architectural slang, as Sergei Kiselev noted, "Wishlist"), the scope of work, work schedule, payment for services, basic conditions and requirements for the work. Also at the stage of negotiations, as noted by Odorenko, it is necessary to choose a construction method and decide on a contractor. Up to this point, it is extremely imprudent to start preparing the working documentation. The next step is to clearly define the responsibilities and authority of the architect at the construction site. Either it is field supervision - tracking the accuracy of the implementation of the provided drawings, or - full construction management, when, in fact, the architect is the main person at the construction site. His office moves there during construction. He is urgently obliged to resolve all emerging issues: within 5 days - to give answers, within 10 days - to consider and approve the drawings of the contractors. If the contractor believes that any constructive solution will be more appropriate in this case than the one proposed by the architect, he writes a statement to the architect with justification and calculation of the necessary resources. The architect examines the application, its feasibility and, if required, solicits the customer for the allocation of additional funds. All papers for payment of contractors' services are signed by the architect in this situation of roles at the construction site. Such a scenario is more typical for America, in contrast to Russia, in which the designer's supervision is observed only at the request of the customer. As noted by Anna Odorenko, Russia, like China, is a high-risk country. Since for a long time in these countries the functions of the customer-designer-builder were carried out by one subject - the state. Therefore, the principles and rules of constructive negotiation between developers and architects in Russia for decades have not been worked out in the West, which the speaker knows from her own practice - her company NBBJ Russia has been working in Moscow for more than five years, at the moment on one of the towers of the City of Capitals complex in the "Moscow City".
Igor Mazurin, Leading Researcher at the Energy Institute named after Krzhizhanovsky spoke about the need to miscalculate the prospective risks of heat and power supply in the design of new buildings and about the dead ends in which this need can lead architects and customers, but at the same time relieve future homeowners of problems for a long time. He noted the recent sharp decrease in the reliability of electrical networks due to excessive wear and tear of power equipment. The probability of a power failure in Moscow today is about 85-90%. The 2005 summer accident is a direct confirmation of this. In the Moscow region, as in the rest of Russia, the reliability of power grids is even lower. District heating is not much better. The wear rate of heating networks is 65-75%. Hence the decision to switch to autonomous heat supply (up to apartment heating), adopted by the Russian Government back in 2003. There is no one to maintain and repair the old thermal power plants today. The third problem is drinking water. The construction of treatment systems specialized for a specific area in new micro-districts and settlements does not keep pace with the change in the level and composition of impurities in the water: new emissions of industrial waste make these systems ineffective in a matter of hours. However, with the obvious need to maximize the reliability of life support systems, everyone understands that this is a rise in the level of costs, and, accordingly, prices. The difference in prices for the two experimental extremes - an absolutely autonomous submarine in terms of life support and the opposite hut "with amenities in the yard" - according to the speaker's calculations, is 104-105 times. Therefore, everything here depends on the will of the customer - on his ability and desire to invest and make a profit. However, as noted by Mazurin, financial expediency is not the only argument in favor of making this or that decision. There are also legislative, engineering, technological, economic, political and even personal (if the customer, for example, builds housing for himself) determinants and motives. All of them, Mazurin urged the designers to take into account, solving the problem analytically or, better, graphically. At the same time, he noted that the schedule would have to be rebuilt around 40-50, which would take at least six months of work. But it is precisely this thoroughness of the calculations that can guarantee the adoption of the only correct and justified design decision.
Sergey Kiselev, head of the architectural bureau “Sergey Kiselev & Partners” spoke after Konstantin Komisarov, commercial director of ZAO Schneider Electric, who figuratively defined the role of manufacturers on the Russian construction site - “plankton” (they supply materials without affecting the process in any way). The topic of Kiselev's speech was tenders for the supply of materials and services. However, before going directly to her, he spent some time arguing with the positions of the previous speaker. Konstantin Komisarov suggested in his speech replacing, in his opinion, the linear scheme of relations "customer-designer-contractor-manufacturer" that is widespread in our country, with a new one, where the contractor finds himself in the center of all these contacts, without overlapping the interaction of "everyone with everyone." "It is necessary to meet more often," Komisarov summed up his speech, "then the manufacturers will offer their customers the best technical solutions for the same money." Sergey Kiselev did not agree with the new scheme, as he noted that he did not like the practice of design-build (an architect hires a contractor) and a turnkey situation (a contractor hires an architect). In the classical scheme, the architect is the main contractor of the triad, but at the same time he represents the interests of the customer, "leads" him from the earliest stage of the project idea to the selection of a site for construction and the design of the technical task, since it is the architect who accumulates all the knowledge about the suppliers of materials and is at this stage the most reliable consultant for the customer. (In Russian architectural workshops, as Sergei Kiselev noted, not like in America on Wednesdays, judging by the data provided by Anna Odorenko, but on Fridays from 5 pm to 6 pm, technical training takes place, at which manufacturers and suppliers of materials and technologies present their new products and solutions).
As for the tenders announced as the topic of Kiselev's speech, he reminded the audience that the tender is a competition in order to determine the optimal price. The tender is obligatory for budgetary institutions. This procedure was determined back in April 1993 by a special provision of the Gosstroy. Since then, the bureau "Sergey Kiselev and Partners" has not been working with budget customers, preferring to help in determining a fair price to those who spend their own - and not someone else's - state - money, that is, to private customers. Although it would be better, as Kiselev noted, if the customers carried out them themselves or did without tenders altogether, they have personal connections, people they trust, relatives, finally. There are, however, powerful investment and construction structures, which have a subdivision within themselves that deals with the completion of construction. As there are old-timers in their business with established strong ties with suppliers. Neither one nor the other needs tenders. In other cases, the determination of a fair price for construction is today the key for Russian construction projects. And the architect has to deal with this difficult and thankless task. In the classic, correct, in Kiselev's view, linear scheme, which Konstantin Komisarov wanted to reject as outdated, the customer has a big time savings, but little money. Therefore, Russian extremely economical customers rarely hire a general contractor, they build themselves (earlier it was called "economic method").
If the customer does not regret $ 5-7 per sq. m (this amount, of course, pays off) and orders the development of a tender package, Russian architects are beginning to make, according to Kiselev, "homemade", that is, what is called tender documentation. This, as noted by Kiselev, is a very complex product, which is not a working documentation, but on the scale of the corresponding ones, it must describe the necessary products as accurately as possible so that, guessing what it is about, the supplier could offer the most specific prices. At the same time, it is impossible to name one or another manufacturer without agreement with the customer, if the customer has not immediately identified it. Sometimes architects cannot accurately describe what is needed and then they have to write "constructions like SHUKO". If, according to such documentation, the customer chooses a contractor at an early stage, he has the opportunity to conclude a contract with him with a fixed contract price. And all the architects' drawings become an attachment to this contract. Then it is a pleasure to work on such a construction site, as Kiselev said. But a contract with a fixed contract price is possible only in the case of a project, the likelihood of changing which is minimal. This means that the project is well thought out. Many countries have already learned, Kiselev said, to understand that the longer and better the architect designs, the faster, better and cheaper the builder will build. And since the cost of design is 4%, respectively, for construction is 96%, then smart customers understand that it is better to spend 5% on high-quality design than more than 96% on construction with alterations.
