How to Develop the Outline Brief

Introduction

Getting the brief right is the main task as a client. It’s an essential guide for your delivery team at all stages of your project. With a vague brief, the project won’t be a success, however committed the people involved are.

How to develop the outline brief An outline brief is at the beginning of a project. It states what you want to achieve with your youth centre, and how you want to go about it. But the brief has a role to play at all stages of your project: it helps good communication between all parties, and forms the foundation of the design. Defining your outline brief is not a question of what you want your project to look like – it is about your needs, rather than suggesting specific built solutions. You will need to consult extensively with users, and make the brief as unambiguous as you can so you get the result you want. While the brief should be flexible enough to respond to changes in circumstances, there must also be set points at which decisions are ‘signed off’ and cannot be changed. Not doing this opens you up to changes, which in construction, quickly equal delay and cost.

Compiling the outline brief Collecting information for the brief can be time-consuming and should not be rushed. You need to manage the process so that you seek contributions at the appropriate points, and do not raise false expectations. A great way to start is to look at precedents and talk to other people involved in similar projects. How have they done it, and more importantly, how did they describe what they required? Often, people employ an expert, such as an architect, to help compile the brief. If you have not yet appointed a design team, the brief may be written by someone in your organisation. When you have a complex range of activities in your centre, you can make different members of your team responsible for specific parts of the brief, to ensure details are not forgotten. You’ll find detailed specialist guidance elsewhere in this guide on youth centre activities such as recording studios or sports facilities.

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Four things to do when writing a brief: 1.

Consider what you want to achieve

The brief needs to use clear wording, actual rather than approximate numbers and to state specific aims unambiguously. The outline brief cannot provide all the answers – and in the early stages it may be quite short - but it should pose questions and challenges for the designers. 2.

Relate the outline brief to the vision

Your vision should be feeding into what you require in your brief. It makes sense, but with the complexities of buildings, can be forgotten. After all, if you walk into a mall with the goal of buying new shoes, you should make sure you head to shops that sell shoes, otherwise you might leave with a coat! A great tip is to divide goals or aims in the outline brief into ‘must haves’ and ones that are ‘desirable but not essential’. This will help the project team reach decisions where compromises are needed. 3.

Make sure the brief contains all relevant information

Initially there may be little or no information for some aspects of your project. You should add these details as they become available. If your outline briefing document will be used to inform consultants bidding for work, it should also include what is expected, by when, from whom and describe the selection process and criteria. You can’t just copy another brief. But a good way to check your brief is working is by asking the right kind of questions. These could include: ›› What image will it project to young people, neighbours and other stakeholders? ›› How will it contribute to the local environment? ›› What are the target user groups, their habits and expectations? ›› Is long-term flexibility needed? ›› On what timescale? ›› Will it meet, or exceed, sustainability targets? ›› What special accessibility will be needed? ›› How is the project inclusive? ›› What special requirements might there be because of your intended uses? ›› Are your expectations/hopes realistic? Can you exceed them and those of the funders?

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4.

Consult users, and re-consult

Writing a brief usually takes several rounds of consultation and review, each leading to a more detailed understanding of the project’s aims and users’ needs. This process is often described as ‘iterative’. See the section on consultation for more detail. Consulting young people, staff and the public is the best way to ensure their experiences are included. You will need to strike a balance between consulting a full range of users and avoiding over-elaborate procedures, or overly raising expectations. Here are three tips on consulting on your brief: ›› A useful and revealing way of starting to develop an outline brief from the simplest statement of requirements is to describe a typical day or week in the life of your proposed project, considering it from the point of view of different types of young people, staff, and neighbours. ›› Remember that a balance needs to be struck between specific requests and the long-term project – many of the people involved in a project at briefing stage often are not around when the project is completed. ›› Understand that with consultation, the quality of the answer comes from the quality of the question, so avoid being imprecise, offering the world, and presenting an unrealistic choice. ››

For example, say you were in a town and you were planning new libraries. If you asked an open question like ‘how would you like your library to be?’ you will get wide-ranging responses that would be difficult to interpret. However, if you asked ‘you have to chose between having five small libraries around town open four days a week, or one in the middle of town but open seven days a week, what would you prefer?’ you will get a more useful answer, that is framed by the realities of your project.

What should a brief include? Organisational context ›› Your centre’s overall vision and the project’s role in meeting it ›› the organisation’s structure and decision-making processes ›› the project’s contexts: physical, historical, economic, ecological, social and political, with discussion of any potential conflicts ›› the project parameters covering quality, time and cost (including assumptions about how long the building should last) and setting priorities ›› any partners likely to be involved ›› how the project will be staffed and managed – volunteers, employed staff, etc. ›› key aims and objectives for the project to act as measures for its success or failure.

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The place, and the building’s fabric ›› the urban design and town planning context: listed building issues, the building’s role in its setting and its contribution to urban spaces or landscape ›› an outline of the spaces needed, both internal and external, which may be expressed in terms of their expected functions – i.e. why spaces are needed and how will they be used ›› the approach to security and control of entry into spaces ›› whether out-of-hours access is needed ›› the number of young people, staff, etc, for whom the building is intended, and what their demographic is ›› user requirements, including accessibility ›› what staff/public car parking will be needed, and what public transport options there are ›› technical information such as surveys of existing buildings ›› any existing buildings which could provide inspiration. Performance ›› performance requirements for the building, such as measurable sustainability targets ›› whether a requirement to check the construction costs to the short and long-term business plans is intended ›› a strategy for future growth and further development, including likely new technologies or activities in the centre ›› whether any legislation needs to be considered other than that related to construction. Finance and programme ›› the project budget, and how it will be funded ›› a timetable giving target deadlines for key sign-off and completion dates.

The brief then gets more detailed At later stages of a project, the brief becomes more detailed, and then becomes part of the contract for the people building the project, often at this stage called a specification. The client needs to be checking this throughout, to make sure you are getting what you need. But the most important stage to concentrate on getting a good brief is right at the beginning.

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“Defining your outline brief is about your needs and requirements, rather than suggesting specific built solutions.”

Links and Further Guidance More on the stages of the brief throughout the construction process can be found at www.cabe.org.uk/buildings/developing-the-brief Your project vision needs to be there before you start work on your brief. For more information and examples of visions see www.cabe.org.uk/developing-a-vision-statement There are great resources on case study projects, some include brief information at www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies

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myplace - How to Develop the Outline Brief 2011