Better together than against one other - 6th Design & Build Conference in Berlin
On 14th of September, the 6th Design & Build Conference took place in Berlin. The primary focus was on building in partnership, but also on digitalisation and best practices from other markets.
In times of high inflation, climate crisis, interest rate hikes, supply chain problems, material shortages and exploding building material and energy prices, a partnership approach is more important than ever. Following welcoming remarks by Oliver Wittke, ZIA Managing Director, and Tim-Oliver Müller, Managing Director of the German Construction Industry Association, exciting presentations were given on subjects including, partnership-based project management, contract solutions, digitalised planning in practice and decarbonisation strategies in new and existing buildings, among other topics. All the presentations made it clear that the steadily growing challenges in the real estate and construction industry are heralding a new era of unprecedented proportions. As a crowning conclusion to the conference day, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director Emeritus of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research association, gave the final keynote speech on the requirements for sustainable building.
ISG participated as a sponsor for the fifth time, as Design & Build and other partnership process models are part of our standard service offering due to our international presence and clients. Andreas Sommer, Head of Munich, and Astrid Eberle, Senior Design Manager, gave a presentation on Partnering in Practice, Early Contractor Involvement (ECI), Design & Build, Two Stage Tenders and BIM.
Major projects in Germany are still mainly being carried out according to the "traditional" procedure: Planning and construction phases are delineated from each other; costs are determined, and bids are submitted in between these phases. In contrast, the partnership approach involves the project stakeholders much earlier. As a model, ECI even anticipates and provides for cost estimation as early as the design planning stage. The result: by working together at an early stage everyone benefits from the expertise of those involved, which leads to cost and time savings - an extremely hot topic, especially in times of enormous increases in construction costs. For ISG, it’s been clear for a long time that Design & Build is the right way to achieve the goal and fits perfectly with our corporate culture, which thrives on one-to-one communication and appreciating our partners. In this regard, Andreas Sommer emphasised how important it is to further establish partnership-based construction within the German market as well: "Since our founding, ISG has placed a tremendous value on working with clients who share our values. This approach only works with a partnership-based way of working, which the entire construction and real estate industry can benefit from. With this approach, we still see considerable growth potential in Germany." Astrid Eberle aptly summed it up: "We are also hoping for a cultural change in Germany as well - the crisis has already triggered or accelerated some important processes here."
