Inquiry of The Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood Essay

Inquiry of The Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood - Essay Example Enric Miralles, the Catalan architect and designer of the building died while the project was in progress. The former Lord Advocate Peter Fraser in his Holyrood Inquiry in 2003 has identified the Construction Management method of procurement as one of the major factors affecting the final cost of the project (White and Sidhu 2005). Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to outline the alternative methods of construction procurement that may have been considered for the Scottish Parliament building. One of the methods will be selected as the most suitable, and the reasons for the choice will be explained. The Scottish Parliament building has won numerous awards including the 2005 Stirling Prize for its architecture. The design of the construction was conceived as a poetic fusion of the â€Å"Scottish landscape, its people, its culture and the city of Edinburgh† (Satellite Sites 2008). However, the unrealistic cost estimates at the conception stage, the lack of true comprehension of the architects’ evolving design, requirement for changes and increases approved by the client: the Secretary of State and later the Parliament, and the consequent rise in costs resulted in financial difficulties during the construction. Most significantly, there was inadequate understanding of the Construction Management route of procurement, with no information given to the ministers regarding the risks involved in this method. Moreover, due to the complexity of the project, high maintenance costs are being incurred in an ongoing manner (White and Sidhu 2005). The procurement system is the project organisational structure adopted by the client. It is defined as the â€Å"collective action required to acquire the design, management and installation of inputs† (Ngowi 2000, p.362). According to Morledge (2006), over the last twenty-five years, there have not been any significant changes in the United Kingdom strategies for the procurement of new