The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has developed an assessment tool to measure the design quality of buildings.
The Design Quality Indicator (DQI) is intended for use by everyone involved in the design and construction of the building. It is also straightforward enough to be applied to users and visitors. The DQI can be put into action throughout the entire construction process, from inception to occupation.

The DQI assessment uses a generic questionnaire which takes 20-30 minutes to complete. It helps to analyse the building's design quality using indicators under three headings: building quality, functionality and impact.

The questionnaire uses over 90 statements such as 'there is sufficient daylight in the building' on which respondents are asked to give an opinion. The results from the analysis can then be displayed on a spider diagram for easy visualisation.

The DQI has received support from several central government departs.

"The Indicator allows all involved in the construction process to have a shared understanding of design quality and will allow for a common language for discussing the design quality of buildings," says energy and construction minister Brian Wilson The DQI was developed with support from the Commission for Architecture, the Built Environment, DTI and Rethinking Construction and complements the existing set of performance measures from Rethinking Construction.

It is currently being developed as a fully interactive web-based system, which will be available for public use by May 2003.

In the meantime the CIC is licensing 100 organisations and companies to use the tool as part of the DQI Trailblazing Scheme.

To enquire about the scheme contact the CIC on 020 7637 8692.