Download Soft Landings background

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BSRIA response to the Commission of Enquiry into Achieving Best
Value in the Procurement of Construction Work
Introduction
This response contains BSRIA's advice to the APPG for Excellence in the Built Environment on the
procurement practice of Soft Landings.
Soft Landings is designed to have a beneficial effect on the outcome of a construction project. The
Commission's themes of Briefing, Tendering and Pre-qualification are highlighted in bold where
they are referenced. The topics of Eliminating waste, Enhancing quality, and Reducing time and
cost are addressed at various points where they are relevant.
Soft Landings background
The main structure of Soft Landings was initiated by Mark Way (Director of Skills at the Construction
Industry Council) when chairman of the multi-disciplinary practice RMJM. An early version of Soft
Landings was developed in 2002 by Mark for the Estates Department at the University of Cambridge.
Scope of service documentation was produced in 2004 with sponsorship from a group of architects,
engineers and contractors.
In 2008 the basic documentation was picked up by BSRIA with support from an industry steering
group. With support from the Usable Buildings Trust and Mark Way, Soft Landings was published by
BSRIA in 2009 as the Soft Landings Framework (Appendix 1) as a free-to-use methodology. The
decision was taken to issue the guidance as open-source in order to get the quickest and most
widespread adoption of Soft Landings.
Soft Landings was included as recommendation 3.12 of the Innovation and Growth Team (IGT)
report Low Carbon Construction, which said:
"Government and the industry should routinely embed the principles of Soft Landings into their
contracts and processes, so that a building is not regarded as complete until it performs in
accordance with its design criteria."
The Soft Landings Framework is now recognised as a deemed-to-comply method for sustainable
procurement credits in BREEAM 2011 (Appendix 2).
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The purpose of Soft Landings
Soft Landings is a procurement and delivery protocol that defines a process of graduated handover
for new and refurbished buildings. In Soft Landings, handover is no longer the end of the project, but
an extended completion phase where the project team moves from providing design and
construction services to a period where it focuses on delivering operational readiness.
After handover, the design and building team (the core of the Soft Landings team) works closely with
the client, the occupiers and the facilities team to smooth the transition into use. There follows a
period of aftercare, designed to last up to three years of occupancy, where the Soft Landings team
monitors performance, deals with any problems and queries, and uses formal structured postoccupancy surveys (specifically occupant satisfaction, and technical and energy performance) to
understand how the building is performing against targets. Any under-performance is analysed and
interventions are made to improve performance.
The greater focus on operational outcomes during procurement should achieve five objectives:

The client and building users will benefit from a building that is progressively tuned to meet
its environmental and other design targets

The quality of the final building is higher and more likely to be sustained over the long term,
and energy waste in the long term will be reduced (Factors of 3 or more in building
performance are regularly being reported from post-occupancy evaluations. Recent work by
Carbon Trust shows energy use can be a factor of 5 greater than design prediction. The
ongoing cost to the building owner is way in excess of the investment in Soft Landings).

The feedback from the performance monitoring enables designers and builders to
understand the variables that affect building performance, learn how to tune up buildings,
and to learn from the outcomes

The construction industry learns how to use feedback to close the open loop between
operational reality and design assumptions and modeled targets (the main purpose of which
is to demonstrate regulatory compliance)

Overall, the Soft Landings focus on improving procurement, the design process, handover
routines and follow-through after occupation offers the best opportunity for buildings to
achieve their low energy and low carbon ambitions.
The Soft Landings process
As the process of Soft Landings is described in BSRIA BG4/2009, The Soft Landings Framework, this
submission does not go into detail. Suffice to say that Soft Landings is a set of work steps designed to
augment existing professional services. The worksteps begin at project inception and briefing and
carry on through design, construction, pre-handover and handover, initial aftercare and long-term
support:
Stage 1: Inception and briefing Clarify operational outcomes in the client’s requirements
Stage 2: Design development and construction Review past experience, agree performance
metrics, agree design targets, regularly reality-check
Stage 3: Pre-handover Prepare for occupation, train facilities management staff, demonstrate
control systems, review monitoring strategy of occupants and energy use
Stage 4: Initial aftercare Support staff in first few weeks of occupation, be resident on site to
respond to queries and react to emerging issues
Stage 5: Long term aftercare Monitor, review, fine-tune, and perform periodic feedback studies for
up to three years.
Soft Landings and the Commission themes
Briefing
Briefing is the most crucial stage in procurement. In Soft Landings, briefing specifically involves:

Reviewing past experience to inform the client brief, and the design and construction
process

Realistic environmental and other performance targets are set (energy wastage, defects,
and occupant satisfaction for example)

Intermediate evaluations and reality checks. Workshops will help ensure that stakeholders
are fully engaged as the design develops, and to flush out risks and concerns. BSRIA has
developed a methodology called Pitstopping (published in the BSRIA guide BG 27/2011
Pitstopping – BSRIA's reality-checking process for Soft Landings)

Incentives are set, related to performance outcomes. The conventional policy of retentions
is reversed to reward the design and building team for meeting certain performance levels.
The collaborative approach of Soft Landings fosters a culture of shared risks and reward.
Soft Landings is now included in the 2011 edition of BREEAM New Construction (non-domestic
buildings). Compliance with Soft Landings can earn the client and project team BREEAM credits
under the section: Sustainable Procurement. (An explanatory note is included as Appendix 2.)
Tendering
The early focus on Soft Landings requires the tendering and appointment process to reflect the
client's requirements for enhanced quality of delivery and guaranteed performance outcomes.
These cannot be subordinate to the usual focus on time and cost – the project manager is required
to balance these competing requirements, not allow quality to be sacrificed for speed of build.
The tender process needs to ensure that Soft Landings procedures are incorporated into
conventional contract documentation. The requirements need to conform to the collaborative
nature of Soft Landings and the principles of shared risk and reward.
Pre-qualification
The evaluations of submissions from the lead contractor, key sub-contractors and suppliers requires
them to include an assessment of their understanding and acceptance of the Soft Landings
procedures. Soft Landings requires them to rectify any shortfall and clarify their delivery
arrangements prior to final acceptance and instruction to mobilise.
The successful main contractor needs to buy into the principles of graduated handover and
professional aftercare, and demonstrate their intention to build capacity and skills in Soft Landings
techniques within their service offering, not merely sub-contract responsibilities down the chain.
This will be a big change to their skills set, and a tough test of their willingness to take custody of
building performance.
BSRIA has developed an initial set of Soft Landings Invitation to Tender (ITT) model questions and
answers, along with similar advice for Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQ).
While Soft Landings will never be the sole criterion by which members of a project team (designers
and contractors) are appointed, it should be a very powerful mechanism for discriminating between
rival bids. The requirements of Soft Landings should be thoroughly written into the scope of the
contracts.
Early Evidence
Soft Landings was launched as an open-source methodology in 2009. Only clients and project teams
who have adopted the last stages of Soft Landings have reported back their experience. The initial
application of the later stages of Soft Landings has also been tested recently on schools projects. The
case study results are available from BSRIA in PDF (Appendix 3).
BSRIA runs the Soft Landings User Group, a network of over 25 designers, builders and clients who
are adopting the Soft Landings approach. Of these members, several major building contractors
(notably Willmott Dixon, Kier Western, Balfour Beatty, Sir Robert McAlpine, and Miller Construction)
are committed at Board level to adopt Soft Landings. BSRIA has had contact with clients such as John
Lewis Partnership and the Metropolitan Police who are also keen to adopt the process.
While it is too soon for projects that have adopted Soft Landings from the outset to have reached
completion, BSRIA is aware of a number of new projects that are adopting Soft Landings. Of these,
Birmingham City University (BCU) is possibly the most significant. BCU has used Soft Landings to
restructure the procurement process for a new media centre. It is notable that main contractors to
bid in partnership with an M&E contractor. The client requirements included a commitment for the
project team to deliver professional aftercare for up to three years post-completion.
This project is likely to become a model procurement project for Soft Landings.
Further information
1.
More information on Soft Landings can be found at www.bsria.co.uk/goto/softlandings. BSRIA offers
independent, specialist services to support companies implementing Soft Landings, including postoccupancy evaluations (POE) and energy audits.
2.
The Soft Landings Framework can be downloaded free from www.bsria.co.uk/bookshop,
www.softlandings.org.uk, and www.usablebuildings.co.uk . A series of Frequently Asked Questions
can be read at www.bsria.co.uk/goto/softlandings.
3. The Soft Landings project was led by BSRIA and the Usable Buildings Trust
(www.usablebuildings.co.uk) with a Soft Landings Task Group comprising Mark Way (CIC), AECOM,
Arup, Bennetts Associates Architects, Edward Cullinan Architects, Anne Bodkin, Fulcrum Consulting,
Davis Langdon Consulting, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), Defence
Estates, Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios, Hammerson, Land Securities, Max Fordham LLP, Willmott
Dixon Group and the University of Cambridge.
Appendix 1: The Soft Landings Framework (PDF)
Appendix 2: BREEAM 2011 & Soft Landings – an interpretation note for clients and designers (PDF)
Appendix 3: Soft Landings for Schools – Case Studies (PDF)
Roderic Bunn, BSRIA, June 2011
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