During the five-year period from 1986 to 1991, the City of London attracted one of the most intensive construction investment programmes ever experienced by any modern, developed city. This programme was driven by the new space demands of information-intensive financial services, which could be categorised into two generic groups: Personnel and, Information.

These demands resulted in consequential technical services requirements such as: flexible structural morphologies; flexible and upgradable cabling networks; environmental control systems and, failure management systems. In 1991, the current economic recession inexorably succeeded the boom period of 1986 to 1991. Conventional wisdom within the commercial property development sphere maintains that, during periods of economic recession, there is a flight to quality.

Thus, the diminished reservoir of available funding must be focused on Alpha-Plus rated developments. Thus, the challenge facing the developer, and hence the design team, is to promote the capital risk assessment status of developments marginalised as a result of the pressures exerted by economic recession. It is claimed that cost-effective design is one of the principal technical-variable strategies available to the developer, via the design team, to elevate the funding status of marginalised developments.

It is proposed that a cost-effectively designed building is an intelligent building. The research project addresses what is perceived as the most significant problem associated with the design and installation of engineering services within intelligent buildings integration.

The research project comprises a continuum to construct and develop a management information system relating to engineering services integration. The intention of the research is to re-engineer the design process involved in a critical characteristic of intelligent buildings and thus, invent the future of design co-ordination.