The construction team in Belgium: a lever for more sustainable construction?

The construction team is a form of construction organisation: a way of shaping cooperation between the contracting authority, and the designers and contractors.

In Belgium, the term 'construction team' is often cited in the context of another form of construction organisation, namely the Design, Build, Finance and Maintain (DBFM) formula. This involves outsourcing the whole of design and execution in a single contract. We can therefore also speak of an integrated contract here.

In the construction team as we will integrate it in this renovation, there are still bilateral contracts with the designer and executor, but the client retains control. So in this case, we are talking about a coordinated contract. Contractually, then, it resembles the classic triangle of client, designer and executor, as we know it. The big difference, however, is that the contractor is involved at an early stage, in order to optimise the design on the basis of his execution expertise. The classic sharp division between design and execution is thereby blurred, both in terms of the fulfilment of this task and the linear sequence. The collaboration is described in the construction team agreement.

Governments together are by far the largest purchaser(14% of GDP in Europe), even without taking into account other organisations bound by public procurement legislation. For this reason, Kamp C has been pushing for years to make the procurement process more sustainable. Through this renovation, we want to explore whether the construction team model can be an additional tool in this.

The construction team, as described above, is still little used in public tenders in Belgium. In the Netherlands, however, it is a common way of working together. However, Kamp C and Hasselt University also see opportunities in the Belgian construction landscape to realise better and more sustainable construction projects by working together in a construction team.

The decisions made in the early stages of the construction process have the biggest impact. Just think about the construction volume, or whether we opt for a renovation or a replacement building. At that point, we can still adjust the design with limited cost and effort. So it is of great value that all construction parties are involved early, and can work together on an equal footing. This allows their expertise to contribute to the design to the maximum extent. This increases the chances of creative and innovative input from parties and reduces the likelihood of high ambitions being systematically scaled back as the project progresses. There can also be a shorter lead in terms of the constructability of the design, both financially and technically.

When constructing our circular office building 't Centrum, we used the Design and Build formula (DBME) as a form of construction organisation to achieve this kind of collaboration. This formula (and derivatives such as DBM, DBFM ...) is being used more and more. In reality, we see that this is a somewhat more complex procedure that requires quite a lot of effort from the tenderer, even before the contract is established. As a result, this procedure is often considered profitable only for larger projects.

In this respect, the construction team can lower the threshold by simplifying procedures and making them more accessible, while maintaining the desired way of working together. This is also the opinion of Jonas Voorter, lecturer in environmental law at UHasselt: "Sustainable and circular building is today mainly done by larger local authorities for rather large projects. This usually translates into long, complex and unwieldy processes and contracts. However, the sustainability transition requires support at all levels, from the Flemish government to the smallest local authorities," he stresses. "The construction team model could contribute to this by facilitating cooperation in a simple and accessible way and ensuring that even smaller public clients can acquire the necessary expertise at an early stage and participate in the realisation of sustainable projects. With this Kamp C project, we want to test that theoretical hypothesis in practice to properly identify the potential of construction team mode and draw (and share) learning lessons. Hopefully, in this way we can again lower the threshold to sustainable and circular construction a bit."

After the first part of the tender process, the seven-member jury chose ROOILIJN Architectuur as the design team for the renovation. The team is not only excited to work on the building, but also to make it a socially relevant learning process. Together with them, we will start working on a preliminary design in the coming weeks and months.

At the same time, we will look for a suitable contractor to complete the construction team. You will soon find more information about the planning and content of this tender on our website and during our content morning session for contractors on Thursday 13 February. Interested? Then mark the date in your diary!

ERDF Flanders

This project receives support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in the amount of €369,000.07. In addition, Kamp C receives funding of 92,250.05 euros from the Fund for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The 'Flemish Innovation Centre for Bio-based Building' project will run from 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2026.