‘BLT’ is not a sandwich: learning & teaching emerging building procurement methods; Australian, Asian and European perspectives

A clear understanding of procurement methods for built environment professionals is paramount. The current building process continues to evolve for both, governments and private sector clients and in cases also for combined public-private concessions. Over the last 25 years clients have become more knowledgeable on procurement, project finance and construction delivery mechanisms. Some institutional clients have evolved to become industry experts, in other cases contractors have become project investors such as in Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) or Build-Lease-Transfer (BLT). As building and construction procurement methods continue to change it is then paramount to bring this knowledge into Master and Higher Education programs related to the built-environment. It is important to clearly understand the emerging procurement methods and mechanisms to successfully deliver and operate projects including building with quality, stakeholder engagement, risk sharing, owner life-cycle operations and project financing strategies. It is important is to learn how to identify key project attributes before selecting a procurement route. This matching exercise is explained in the paper utilising six techniques. This paper then discusses on learning and teaching procurement as experienced by the authors with experiences in Australia, Asia and Europe in particular with research and teaching to Master and Honours students in architecture, engineering, building operations and construction management.