Design Intent Documentation
Design intent documentation helps building owners, architects, and engineers facilitate record-keeping and ensure that the owner's and designer's up-front vision and goals (for energy-efficiency or any other aspect of design) are achieved and periodically verified through performance measurement. Design intent documents evolve as the project moves through the milestones of programming, design, construction, into building occupancy and potential future renovation and retrofits.
Design intent documentation is crucial to the post-construction commissioning process (verifying the proper installation, operation, and performance of energy-efficiency features), and it is the essence of communication and contractual obligation between the building owner, architects, engineers, builders, and commissioning agents.
Developing a project's DID is a team effort. Many stakeholders need to be consulted, including building owner(s), facility occupants, design team members, facility operator(s), construction manager, and commissioning agents. Typically, one of the team members (e.g. the energy consultant) takes the lead on seeing the DID process through to completion. Documenting a facility's design intent is based on an owner-driven process.
If successful, design intent documentation will initiate and maintain a constructive and iterative dialog between the design team and the owner, thereby improving the quality of information flow regarding work the design team is responsible to complete, while minimizing the likelihood of misunderstandings. Design intent documentation offers a variety of other benefits.
The complete Design Intent Document is a repository and archive of design and performance goals. These goals are defined by sets of objectives, strategies, and metrics. Each Objective represents a qualitative goal of importance to the owner. Objectives can have one or more Strategies, which are the means of achieving the goal. Objectives can also have one or more Metrics, which provide a quantitative measure of whether or not the Objective has been met. Assessment Records associated with the Metrics record measurement methods and actual measurements made at different points in a project's lifecycle.
The Design Intent Tool (DIT) provides a structured approach to recording design decisions that impact a facility's performance in areas such as energy efficiency. Using the tool, owners and designers alike can plan, monitor, and verify that a facility's design intent is being met during each stage of the design process. Additionally, the Tool gives commissioning agents, facility operators and future owners and renovators an understanding of how the building and its subsystems are intended to operate, and thus track and benchmark performance.
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