Facilities management is moving from a cost cutting past to a risk averse future. The PFI/PPP model has, finally, ensured that the operational phase of major projects is taken seriously. The development phase will come to be seen as just a means to an end, spelling trauma for design teams. These are just some of the conclusions which came out of a presentation by Bev Nutt, of University College London on the first full day of World Workplace Europe in Glasgow yesterday.

Bev Nutt responds to questions at World Workplace

According to Nutt, the output specification is becoming more important than the design project brief and whole life use value will be seen as more relevant than disposable asset value. A full house heard Nutt, one of the prime movers in the development of the FM profession in the UK, set out four competing futures for facilities management. In addition to the financial resource or business '‘trail'’ he identified people, property and information as possible alternatives.

For Nutt, the most exciting of these possible development paths is the last: "Until now FM has plundered ideas and techniques from elsewhere. The challenge now is to produce our own knowledge base. We must bring FM into the briefing loop, ensuring that experience of operational use is fed into both strategic and project briefing."

Richard Byatt