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British Library Centre for Conservation

London

Evaluation

DQI workshops get people talking

The DQI briefing workshop was the first time that stakeholders had discussed requirements for the new building together, as different conservation departments and the sound archive were separated in different sites around London

"The DQI briefing session brought together people who did not know each other and helped develop understanding between parties - it provided a structure through which to talk to each other effectively"
Project sponsor

This allowed stakeholders to understand each others requirements and helped to develop a shared vision for the whole project.

"DQI allowed for a better understanding of other peoples requirements which in an organisation that had been located on different sites around London was really important - it gave us a picture of the whole organisation and started a process of engagement with the rest of the library"
Head of conservation research

The result was a mutual recognition of the competing requirements that needed to be accommodated in the new building.

"DQI took me out of my own specialist area and allowed me to discuss other parts of the building. It gave me an awareness of other stakeholder requirements and highlighted the need to work together to successfully accommodate what are potentially incompatible processes going on under one roof"
Operations manager, sound archives

DQI process promotes consensus

The briefing workshop showed that the design needed to deliver functional spaces for both book conservation departments and the sound archive:

  • control of air and light (conservation department)
  • internal and external acoustic controls (sound archive)
  • isolation of clean spaces from dirty, wet and chemically driven processes (conservation)
  • separation of noisy machinery from sound recording studios (sound archive).

Stakeholders indicated that the priority in the design for the new building should be in meeting these functional requirements rather than aesthetic ones.

"DQI was part of a briefing process that allowed the client to pin point exactly what they wanted to get out of the project … when used properly, is a useful way to ensure clients are really thinking through their requirements giving what are often subjective wants and needs objective legitimacy"
Architect

DQI helps stakeholders talk to the design team

The DQI provided a language to articulate wants and needs in detail to the design team.

The Head of Conservation Research said “nobody had experience of involvement in the design and construction of a building before” which meant that “there was a potential clash of cultures between the architectural profession and conservation staff. DQI offered a way into understanding their world and provided the first steps that enabled us to become a more intelligent client”.

The Operations Manager said, "DQI introduced us to the problems and complexities faced by architects, engineers and contractors" and as a result "we as end users were involved from the beginning and were given the opportunity to understand the building from the ground up".

Mid-design assessments can fix problems during design production

The two mid-design assessments compared demand- and supply-side design quality evaluations.

"In a project with multiple users requiring a complex environment DQI helped make sure that the design and users were standing in a straight line, and that the supply and demand side had the same vision for the new building.” (project sponsor)

Project managers analysed and discussed the results in design development meetings using graphs generated by the DQI online tool:

"a picture tells a thousand words and we used the diagrams as part of the executive board meeting to clearly and quickly illustrate the results of the DQI assessment"
Project sponsor

The results showed that supply- and demand-side evaluations of the quality of the current design were well-matched and that the design was meeting the aspirations from the briefing stage. They also highlighted two issues which were troubling end-users:

  • concerns about the use of external timber cladding on the elevations around the main entrance to the centre were addressed by reviewing samples with the architect and end users.
  • concerns about the level of priority given to functionality, over build quality and social and environmental impact in the design. End-users judged the success of the new building on whether it functioned well for their needs, so the design team prioritised this functionality when finalising the production designs. 

"DQI could pick up those problem areas that people felt unable to articulate or communicate in other consultative contexts ... it forced a level of openness and honesty in answering questions"
Project sponsor