Last week, we took our Build Lean research initiative to our Edinburgh studio for an intimate roundtable, held in collaboration with real estate advisor Chris Dougray. Much like our Canteen Conversation in London last month, the session opened with questions around design and certification but quickly moved on to something more critical: the biggest gains in viability will come from rethinking how we work together, how we procure, and how we share risk.

There was real energy in the room, and we’re already planning a follow-up session, this time with contractors at the table, so that we can really get things moving.

Scotland’s construction market is writing its own rules

The market in Scotland has its own distinct dynamics, and understanding them is essential to unlocking viability.

Historically, a tough market would see contractors competing hard for work, absorbing cost inflation in the process. That simply isn’t happening here. A thriving energy and renewables sector in the north is sustaining a relatively small pool of contractors, giving them the ability to be selective. Complex or logistically challenging projects – retrofit in particular – are being carefully weighed against return, and contractors, having learned hard lessons from the last recession, are making considered decisions about where they take on risk.

Getting the right knowledge in the room

There was a strong and shared appetite for earlier, more collaborative ways of working – design sprints that bring clients, design teams and contractors together from the outset to interrogate the brief and design with buildability firmly in mind.

We also had a candid and constructive discussion about how to make that collaboration as effective as possible. Pre-Construction Services Agreements (PCSAs), which bring a contractor on board during the design phase, can add real value by introducing buildability knowledge early. But where main contractors are acting as management contractors – coordinating and overseeing work rather than actually building – the real expertise might be further down the supply chain. Bringing those subcontractors into early-stage conversations could unlock genuinely inventive solutions.

Active procurement strategies are needed, not default routes. There was significant discussion of construction management, which asks more of the consultant team and places more risk client-side, something consultants and clients might not be prepared for.

Where do we go from here?

The session closed on a constructive note, next time we will get contractors in the room, to hear where projects went wrong, to understand how we can better apportion risk and to explore what better collaboration looks like in practice.

We’re very much looking forward to continuing the conversation.