ABSTRACT
Traditionally, a client who wished to have a building constructed would invariably commission an architect to prepare drawings of the proposed scheme, and if the scheme was sufficiently large, employ a quantity surveyor to prepare appropriate contract documentation on which the building contractor could prepare a price. Where design and build procurement is used a greater proportion of the risk involved is transferred to the contractor. Innovations, which were post-Latham, include single-point responsibility for the employer, utilisation of the contractor's buildability skills, reductions in the pre-tender period, redefinition of risks and the preference for specifications rather than bills of quantities. Cost reimbursement arrangements allow the contractor to recoup the actual costs of the materials which have been purchased, the actual time spent on the work by the operatives and the actual time used by mechanical plant. Conditions would be written into the documents to allow further contracts to be withheld where the contractor's performance was less than satisfactory.
