Approach

Our Team approach includes the client’s staff, users and industry partners throughout the design phase. All of our senior team members have rich experience in building consensus amongst large and sometimes complex cross-sections of users and stakeholders. We regard this as a challenge rather than a problem, and we work with all groups in great detail. Our approach to achieving results in the design includes:

  • Exploring every option conceivable, available and achievable
  • Encouraging and welcoming input from all stakeholders
  • Respecting the opinions and ideas put forward by the user groups
  • Translating these ideas into two and three dimensional realisations
  • Constantly updating the plans, options, costs and energy commitments

Design Workshops

We believe that the success of the project will stem from balancing the needs and aspirations of the Owner, Stakeholders and User Groups. We are proposing a series of participative design workshops that ‘gives voice’ to all the users, with one workshop per user group. This approach allows for full participation of the Owner and the Project Team and encourages open, inter-disciplinary discussion to provide a better understanding of the desires, concerns and requirements of each group.

To better understand the space requirements, working relationships, and methods, we will observe the User Groups existing facilities in preparation for the workshop. The tour will also determine non-assigned space needs, support spaces, and potential shared spaces to include in the overall space requirements. As we proceed to the workshops, the Team will employ various tools; questionnaires, adjacency matrices, diagrams as well as open discussion to encourage user group interaction and focus the goals for this project. These sessions are also an opportunity for the Team to inform the Users of the project scope: the building constraints, budget, LEED, accessibility and ultimately inform the architectural expression.

A Functional Program

Based on a review, analysis and evaluation of the functional and organizational relationships and requirements/objectives for the project, we shall provide a written functional space program that will define/confirm user group requirements, activity requirements and adjacencies. The functional space program will be reviewed with the Agency representatives to confirm it is consistent with the concepts developed during the original workshop.

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