While almost all of us in the development and construction industry are aware of the potential benefits of new digital design technologies (including Building Information Modeling), there are many who have found that collaborative consultant teams working on their projects are yet to live up to their expectations.

It’s not surprising when you think about it. We are asking companies who have no vested interest in each other to work together to achieve what? Transformation of the design, construction and operation of buildings? Can they even see the day when this will happen and they will play their role in this? Some are still not sure what the benefits are to them, and their firms. But here at Ellivo we’ve developed a healthy respect for what BIM can do for our clients, our service, and us. One we want to share with you.

We are starting to see two parallel worlds emerging in BIM. One where some clients and development managers are reaping the benefits of quicker delivery times, improved design resolution, accurate cost estimates and coordinated documents – and yes, in some cases lower consultant fees. And in the other, world, some are experiencing exactly the opposite.

We understand that some consultants are even seeking additional fees to use modern 3d+ technology in their designs! Why would this be so? Surely it is part of our job to evolve and leverage these tools for our clients and our own business efficiency.

Over the coming three weeks we are going to provide a detailed insight into the BIM minefield, a pragmatic “users guide”, offering practical suggestions to developers and development managers to benefit from this new technology revolution, and not be saddled with consultant teams that still have their “L” plates on.

Firstly, it’s important to understand why there is such a disparity in consultant uptake and performance, so we offer a snapshot of the industry is at and provide some insights into why there is such parallel and polar experiences in an otherwise fairly similar industry:

 · We’re seeing increased efficiency - Selected Architecture, Engineering and Quantity Surveying firms that have been early adopters have now successfully completed implementation of new technologies, and are achieving increased efficiencies within their companies – quicker time responses and increasingly sophisticated models at earlier design stages provides greater value for clients and stakeholders.

 · Cost savings in consulting fees are now possible –We are aware of selected Structural Engineers and Quantity Surveyors that will offer an alternative ‘discounted fee’ when a suitably constructed and compatible architectural model is available and saves them time.

 · But some are struggling and disappointing developers - Late or recent adopters are struggling to fully implement the required systems, training and software, resulting in patchy delivery of service, particularly when working in a collaborative team environment. Many clients that have experienced this have been underwhelmed. Sadly these types of experiences set BIM back in the eyes of developers, and can cost them on several fronts. We encourage developers to do their research on who they are selecting for their teams to attempt to overcome this risk of disappointment.

 · BIM is changing the way consulting teams work together – No longer are we independent players managing our own process and delivering each component to the developer for them to amalgamate. Increasingly we require key participants in the consulting teams to formally collaborate, buy in to the principle of information sharing and also to put in place firm standards, protocols and approach. Putting the right team together, and ensuring they have strong positive leadership and structured management is certainly one of the critical elements.

 · Projects using collaborative BIM on the rise -While the number of collaborative BIM projects is slowly increasing, successful projects are a reflection of the consultants selected and management approach, not the project size or complexity. Bigger is not necessarily better.

 · Facilities Management is becoming an increasing driver for adoption- There is a growing Industry awareness of the value of digital models for ongoing Facility Management. Asset owners can create an FM database directly from their project model giving them the ability to cost facility management and procurement and use the tool in lifecycle management of assets.

 · Queensland is leading the way - Generally, Queensland is ahead of the rest of Australia in terms of implementation and BIM teams collaborating. Perhaps this is because the development industry is less patchy here post GFC, or perhaps it is because of our cowboy-like confidence to have a go.

Why has the BIM uptake been slower than anticipated?

 · Implementation is both expensive and time - consuming, and requires long-term commitment from business owners. Both the GFC (and possibly the retirement plans of directors) have dampened enthusiasm for expensive long-term investment within some consultant companies.

 · The software is still developing – It has come a long way to get this far, but there is new elements coming with architectural, structural and estimating ahead of MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing).

 · There has been less demand from clients for BIM than anticipated - This is probably due to the decreased appetite for risk, and the capital concerns raised during the GFC and post-GFC period. But we are slowing seeing this improve with Developers looking to reap the range of benefits BIM offers.

 This article is part of a three part series on BIM that we will offer weekly:

 1. Where is BIM Now?: A snapshot where BIM is at in Australia

 2. Considering BIM?: What you as a client need to know

 3. Looking forward 5 years: What will BIM do to our development and property landscape?

Here’s what we found.

1. Colour, Pattern and texture are being used like never before.

The use of colour in a variety of environments is welcomed. The days of the corporate coloured office are gone, standard finishes are now available in so many options at the same cost that they are utilised by Designers and Architects everywhere. Colour in Interiors is used to soften, enliven and identify spaces. And a combination of colour, pattern and texture are most desirable.

2. Loud is acceptable.

The conservative approach is certainly out the window with Corporates, Developers and Individuals looking to differentiate their shopping centres, apartments and homes from their competition and their not afraid to make a statement while doing it.

Westfield Sydney is a great example of a redevelopment that is leading the way with a 6 Greenstar Shopping Centre which is designed to identify brands and differentiate levels from urban through to International labels across the different levels. The feel of each level varies from slick and glamorous to edgy and urban to identify with tenancies on that level. The newest edition also includes a sexy dining level [it’s hard to call it a food court], concierge services, fine dining restaurants and our favourite – a champagne bar!

3. Working spaces are being redefined.

Our lives are fast paced and complicated. Our environments seem to do everything to hide this and provide comfort and practicality. The technical side is hidden; our lives are plug-in and wireless amongst uber comfortable furnishings, greenery and all about users being comfortable within. This is extending beyond the home to the workplace and other shared spaces such as retail.

Large Corporates such as CBA, Macquarie Bank and ANZ are moving into new headquarters vying for the highest Greenstar ratings and changing the way they work and the spaces they provide to be the employer of choice. They are using the opportunity to move to make statements about their sustainability, both environmentally and socially, implementing change in the working environment and have successfully delivered new spaces of activity based working where striking and inviting interiors are key to their success.

Some of these offices are very impressively paperless. Meetings are paperless and staff are given a locker and laptop. They don’t have dedicated individual desk but are happily working in their ‘neighbourhoods’ and making constant use of shared meeting space, again which remain paperless. Funnily enough they don’t want to personalise their new spaces and seeing the workings in person it makes you wonder why we ever had paper in these types of offices!

4. ‘Green buildings’ have moved from talk to reality.

With the rise of ‘green’ buildings and the cost of living, more and more product and businesses are leading by example. The number of five and six star Greenstar buildings throughout Australia is increasing. With Corporates seeking out Greenstar spaces the gap between A and B grade is also increasing.

B-grade Commercial and Shopping Centres are now also taking up the Greenstar initiatives and NABERS incentives which equal better resale and higher tenant occupation, not to mention the reduced carbon footprints. The reality is that if they are not being upgraded they will be left behind – if they haven’t already.

5. Smaller living spaces are more accepted and socially responsible.

Driven by the cost of living and the fast pace of live there is certainly a lot of people most happy to buy or rent small apartments. Whether they do so to reduce their carbon footprint, whether its cost prohibitive or because they are a one or two person house hold people are more accepting of small spaces that are well designed.

Equally Developers are stepping up providing interesting interiors and storage to support the thinking & living.

6. Comfort combines with slick and edgy.

Within homes, retail and workspaces the emphasis is certainly on comfort and style. Massive fit-outs and tiny apartments are using a mixture of classic and modern to create layers of interest, texture and colour that deliver inviting spaces.

The thinking around the value of interiors has certainly changed and the understanding that your office, you restaurant, retail outlet or the presentation of you apartment building extending beyond the commercial value is very real. Employers place value on happy, productive staff and clients and are providing the environments to support this. Shopping centres cater for different shoppers and understand providing comfortable environments to help sales and keep their centres buzzing. Interior Designers everywhere are key to this process of understanding the desired outcomes and helping deliver on them – and it looks like they are achieving some amazing outcomes.

As part of a Research and Development Day, Ellivo Architects have carried out reviews of past projects, visiting and getting feedback from residents and building managers in post occupancy inspections, to understand how the designs of the buildings are working for them as owners, occupiers and managers two years after completion.

Some of the results are as you would expect, and others are quite surprising and will lead to a shift in our apartment designs.

Largely, tenants, owners and managers were very happy with unit layouts. Interesting, but not unexpected observations included:

• Within apartment developments reviewed, there are apartment layouts that have waiting lists and command higher returns from tenants who are keen to move when a vacancy arises; and others that don’t command this additional rental bonus.

• As expected, the most popular unit layout for investment stock has become the dual master bedroom units, (two bed, two bath (ensuite and a two way bathroom for second bedroom), simply because the apartment handles two occupants contributing equal rent with no superior tenant.

• With the constant reduction of internal unit sizes, communal external breakout spaces are proving increasingly popular. This inspires us to continue to include these and look for new ways to incorporate quality outdoor breakout spaces outside the floor plate of residents’ units.

There were also a couple of surprising discoveries, which will direct us to modify designs for future apartments where it is appropriate:

• The landscaped areas of private courtyards have not had their gardens maintained to the level that developers had expected or hoped. Few tenants have used their planter boxes in their private spaces and they have become quite bedraggled in some courtyards. This is despite the body corporate maintaining planters and gardens in communal spaces impeccably.

• In some units we designed access to a balcony from bed 1 as well as the living space, resulting in reduced wall space but better light and circulation to the bedroom. We have found that tenants would in some cases prefer reduced access to the balcony from private areas, and increased useable wall space. In one unit we found a tenant had shut the curtains and pushed a dresser up against the sliding glass door rather than use the outdoor light and access to the balcony.

These two observations alone will influence our current apartment designs, encouraging us to focus on well-landscaped communal areas and minimizing individual and expensive courtyards that require gardening upkeep from owners and tenants. We will also contemplate the need for a balcony access door from the bedrooms of an apartment, considering instead the creation of extra wall space for tenants to place furniture against.

It is a very valuable and insightful process talking to owners, occupiers and managers of a development a couple of years after the development is completed and apartments are in full use. These observations give us the knowledge and confidence in making valuable decisions during the design stage for future projects.

These post-occupancy evaluations have been done as part of a research and development day carried out by the entire Ellivo Architects’ team. In order to keep our work at the forefront of design we have committed to devoting valuable studio time to R&D exercises throughout the year to stay in touch with:

• international trends

• new technologies/ materials

• new software

• evaluations of built product

This article is written by Dan Volpato, Associate of Ellivo Architects.

Tanya has just returned from a ten day trip with Argent Australia touring through the factories of Grohe, Bette and Villeroy & Boch and has a new appreciation of their engineering precision.

Forty lucky people from across Australia jetted off to Germany completely unaware of how much they were about to learn and laugh in one week! From the first factory tour with our gracious host Rolf, followed by a large dinner and plenty of Schnapps the team from Argent had certainly set the scene for a great week ahead.

We toured the factories of Bette Steel enameled baths, shower trays and basins which were robotically precise and had many options and colours beyond what you see in Australia – so far that is. We travelled on to Hemer to the enormous factories of Grohe. Never had I seen such technology working so precisely in combination with men of thirty years’ experience to ensure that each product was perfectly flawless and delivered to us so seamlessly.

And of course then on to the much talked about Mettlach – Home of the Villeroy & Boch Guest house [ie castle] where we had the privilege of staying for two nights while we toured the factories and the abbey containing the museum and galleries of V&B.

In between our factory visits we had fabulous German hosts for Architectural tours of cities and towns featuring buildings by Gehry, Meier and Sir Norman Foster. We shared many beers, pretzels, schnitzel, pork of every kind with cabbage and potato with a most fabulous group of people.

I am most appreciative to Argent, Bette, Grohe & Villeroy & Boch for making such a trip possible and letting us see where there quality and design originates. It has helped me understand product design, manufacturing and pricing a whole lot more and I look forward to the next tour wherever that may be.

The typology has its roots back in the 1920s, but the seeds for wide adoption of the walk-up were in the 1960s, as new strata title laws increased their popularity creating an affordable foothold in the housing market.

Our suburbs are peppered with these developments. In New Farm for instance the apartment complexes from the 1930s and earlier are a valuable part of the diversity of the suburbs character and fabric. The “six packs” from the 60s and 70s have not reached the same acceptance- and perhaps never will. So love them or hate them, 3 Storey Walk-Ups have filled a much needed affordable niche in the housing market but they may be no longer a viable option.

The new codes require access to the foyer and front door of all new apartments at all levels, unless there are a minimum of two accessible ground floor apartments. Common areas must also be accessible. This can be almost impossible without a lift on a flood prone or steep site.

As a result, small developments sites are now much more difficult to stack up as the costs of lifts are amortised over too few apartments. A solid due diligence is required when looking at a new site as these issues affect viability and layout.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom, there is upside too. In making lifted apartments and industry standard, we are making a more future proof housing option with broader appeal for our aging generation.

Also, there has always been a great deal of uncertainty about the equitable access rules and how they work in conjunction with the building code. These issues are now covered in a single document, giving much greater clarity to the minimum requirements. To review these in greater details, click here.

Using these incentives wisely has many tangible and intangible benefits that are worth considering.

So why should you consider moving?

A new premises and fit-out has many tangible benefits including the opportunity to refresh your brand. The look and feel of your space and physical location creates an identity that reflects your business ethos.

First impressions are a strong driver in the decision making of your potential clients. Your office and front of house staff are instrumental in portraying your values and culture to your network.

A well-planned office environment can also deliver great benefits to your staff. Quality planned environments designed with you and your operation in mind reinforce and assist the way that your teams communicate and interact. This is not a debate about open verses closed office planning, but understanding what is appropriate for your culture and operation.

Ellivo Architects recently went through the exercise of comparing benefits of refurbishing our existing premises against moving to a completely new space.

We were faced with spending more money on our existing tenancy to upgrade lighting, build-in storage and additional workstations to enable any growth. All that we would have achieved was enough space for an extra two people, some very expensive storage and lengthy disruption to staff and clients as we carried out the work.

The flipside – we negotiated a lease in an A grade space, with a new fit-out designed around our current needs that allowed us to express who we are.

The results include a truly open plan continuous bench arrangement has improved communication and design collaboration within the team immensely. The more flexible spaces are a better representation of who we are and our ethos, and are designed around the way we work.

A recent NSW Government study found that “In organisations where teamwork and collaboration are critical, socialising is the glue that binds a team together.” This is certainly our experience and the internal communication has improved dramatically as the design of the space reinforces our work processes.

An incentive that is carefully allocated on a fit-out that delivers on brand, message and budget can also deliver on the way that your teams function and interact.

How can you achieve all of this?

It is as simple as spending the incentive wisely and understand how your office works. These are crucial to delivering success using an incentive;

Firstly -

• Get to understand your office system and interactions. Is the current fit-out you occupy helping or hindering the way your staff and teams interact? What would you change to make the environment work for you?

• Is the current fit-out delivering on the image and message you are trying to communicate with your client and industry colleagues? Is your space supporting your business’ success? Is it time to move or refurbish?

Then -

• Find the right space and location. A design team can help to decide if the space is the right size and configuration for you operation.

• Look at how the incentives offered can be best utilised to deliver a great quality and functional work environment that reflects what you offer.

A new fit-out for your firm can be delivered with the assistance of incentives that can deliver results beyond your expectations. Designing a new fit-out for your firm is an investment that is easily delivered with the right understanding of your business, budget and the right team on-board. Making the decision to engage designers to design your new space should be an enjoyable process and result in your business enjoying the results for a long time to come.

According to Paul Barratt, the Marketing Manager of CB Richard Ellis, the Internet has become the research tool of choice for savvy property buyers worldwide. Online you can research apartment offerings, compare similar and contrasting products, and read reviews with little or no pressure from agents, and make your choice to buy in your own time. There is no doubt that in the last few years we have seen residential sales measurably impacted by Internet influence.

“People come to us well informed about the market and with a greater knowledge of the product they want” he said. “It is a changing trend, but exciting to see this increased level of sophistication emerging in the industry”.

A case in point is the Commonwealth Bank’s App that allows instantaneous access to RPData’s sales database in real time standing outside a dwelling.

But how much of the sales process in new and off the plan apartments is going to be conducted online in coming years, and can developers harness this move for their own commercial benefit? Would it be possible to tailor a sales office and display to better suit the online environment? Or spend more online and less on displays to meet the needs of the changing market?

At Ellivo Architects we are seeing some developers expend hundreds of thousands of dollars on traditional sales display offices that relatively few people visit. In contrast, virtual 3D walkthroughs are now available to our clients for their websites, online promotions, and ‘virtual sales offices’ are seeing purchaser interest skyrocket.

Mirvac has had recent success in Sydney with this approach, selling $291m in 11 hours.

In recent months the Ellivo team has been investigating appropriate 3D gaming technologies to making virtual reality apartment sales more accessible to prospective purchasers.

It was just a matter of time before the property sector caught up with what is happening online,” said Scott Whiteoak, Director of Ellivo Architects. “A lot of the core research on apartments is already being done via the web, and we see this increasing on many, if not all types of residential projects in the future. So we are gearing up to help our clients showcase their products using the best mediums available.”

The recently released Fish Lane Apartments in Melbourne Street have also had their share of success, with purchasers attending 40 appointments in the first weekend of the sales campaign.

This international competition asked entrants to design and document an 18 storey hotel and commercial development located along the Kallang River, Singapore. Within the 48 hours teams were provided with a detailed brief and were required to complete a fully co-ordinated BIM model for the vacant 8195sqm site.

At the conclusion of the 48 hours, the ‘Dream Team’ produced a fully integrated model included architectural, structural, building services design & calculations, sun & wind analysis & consumption data, constructability analysis, model checking, clash detection, 4D planning and demonstrated the collaborative capability of BIM and its benefits for creativity, innovation and sustainability. Stay tuned in the coming months for the results and findings from this competition.