Design & build is getting more popular

"The reason being is that the design and build formula provides a better way of managing the risk – and with that comes not only cost certainty but also schedule benefits in terms of time. And time for the hotel industry is important when it comes to room stock and getting the product up and available for sale," said Richard Harris. "In the early days it perhaps didn’t have a positive reputation in terms of how it was perceived. Through the design-and-build method you end up with a product that has been designed by the contractor rather than the vision of an architect or an interior designer. I think that the sector has realised that that’s not the way forward. To carry out design-and-build projects you still need architect and interior designer input to come up with the creative approaches for the project. And what the design-and-build provider does is to bring all that together in terms of the buildability and the know-how for delivering the project, while leaving the architects to do what they do best, which is to focus on the inspirational aspects and the creative design side," explained the head of capital work services for EMEA at JLL.