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The British Library Centre for Conservation 
The Centre of Conservation is the capital project that the British Library has undertaken since it moved to St Pancras in the early 1990’s. The decision to use the DQI on this project was initiated by Drivers Jonas, the project managers, and hosted by Davis Langdon, the cost consultants for the project who were DQI trailblazers.
“We followed advice from CABE to use the DQI on this project as the British Library specifically wants to commission a quality building, and we had used the tool before on other projects. The Centre of Conservation is to be a centre of excellence reinforcing the reputation of the British Library as the world’s leading institution for restoring and conserving books, manuscripts and sound recordings. The client want it to be an acclaimed design, but also create a functional environment for the specialist working conditions required for conservation and sound, and also to establish a balanced relationship with the existing flagship building and its surroundings.
We undertook the DQI workshop in a collective way prior to stage A of the two stage design and build contract. The stakeholders who attended were the project sponsor, head of conservation, head of sound, library project architect, project manager, architectural advisor, services and structural engineer with Davis Langdon acting as DQI facilitator. We felt that the workshop format was essential to ensure the collation of data and the generation of conversation, and it worked well.
The DQI provides a framework to determine the aspirations and needs for each participant distinguishing individual interpretations of ‘design quality’. The different perceptions under the three headings of build quality, functionality and impact worked very well, and at this stage the functionality of the building was identified as important. In addition issues such as the necessity for natural daylight, the level of control users will have on their personal environment, and the aesthetic integration with the British Library were highlighted as key to the stakeholders. The DQI allowed for a language to be initiated between the professional and lay stakeholders.
The DQI will be revisited once a designer has been appointed. It will be incorporated as a checklist against the client’s original aspirations and will be used as a benchmark throughout the construction process. Davis Langdon and Drivers Jonas both intend to continue the use of the DQI, and hope to incorporate it, when appropriate, in value and risk management studies at project briefing stage.”
Maria Kliniotou 
Davis Langdon
Jonathan Gibson
Drivers Jonas
In September 2005 the DQI was used again to assess the winning design solution. Click here to read a about this mid-design assessment.
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