Integrated Practice

A collaborative approach to the design and construction of the built environment founded on three basic principles:

COLLABORATION between disciplines, as seen in the emergence of design-build as a mainstream method of building production
CONCURRENCY of design and construction, as in fast-track production
CONTINUITY of involvement by the project team in the life-cycle management of knowledge and services relating to the buildings they create

It is a rapidly growing alternative to the over-the-wall method of practice in which an architect completes design documents and hands them over to a contractor for construction. It promises to overcome many of the drawbacks of the over-the-wall method, which include excessive finger-pointing, delays and inefficiencies wasting as much as 30% of project costs