Managing Quality in Architecture

Abstract

Quality management has all the earmarks of an oxymoron – no wonder design professionals are suspicious of the concept! Quality is an idea, an approach, a theory. The hallmarks of any theory are simplicity, brevity and tidyness. Mies got his down to an enduring three short words. Einstein’s is even more durable, and – at just fi ve characters – probably has set an unbreakable record. By contrast, management is about people. Therefore, management is not simple or tidy – it is messy and complex, an ever-moving target. Quality has a quicksilver nature, hard to grasp. Yes, it can be accurately reduced to a brief set of generic principles – and the international standard for quality, ISO 9001, does that admirably. At the same time, quality means a description-defying passion to excel. This passion drives some of its holders toward a widely-held vision so lofty it includes uplifting of – and poetic to – the human spirit! These ‘mountaintop’ goals have to coexist along with such mundane chores as keeping out rainwater and durability to last half a century! These (a brief set of generic principles, and over-arching, inspirational goals) are, respectively, the ‘little q’ and ‘big Q’ aspects of quality noted by Juran and Franklin1 . How does one resolve the breadth – the pan-practice sweep – of such concepts? The original vision for this handbook was much larger than the space available, and the result is better for it. When confronting severely right-brained readers – my primary market – with a pile of words, Mies’ dictum is spot-on, and the arguments for Viagra don’t apply. The result is not intended as a one-stop shop for designing a QM system, although you could certainly use it for that. Rather, it is a network hub for information about quality in architecture. It is also two books in one: a practical guide to theory and concepts, representing the ‘Q’ of QM; and a comic book story about a fi ctitious practice that closely mirrors the complex, untidy, messy, people side – the ‘M’ of QM – the reality that glides in and ou