Fast forward…

BLOG

Singapore 23^rd August 2011

Just got off from a 2+ hour long conference call with owner, architects and designers…a three city, two countries call, the wonders of technology! We are still early in the pace, at least that is what we thought, and with our contract only just been signed, the appointment fees yet to be received, we thought it more prudent and cost efficient to have our kick off meeting via conference call
rather than being away for at least 2 days, 5 hours flight either way as well as an overnight hotel stay.

I must say that other than not being in the same room and not having one on one personal contact, it is otherwise a fairly efficient way of meeting, certainly for an introductory meeting where we basically run through and present. For a design workshop it probably does not work that well, but for this purpose it worked well. Certainly considering we only spent 2-3 hours rather then 2-3 days!

It always amazes me that despite regular communication, you always seem to find out new things during these meetings. Somehow information that was sort of assumed or at a certain state of progress turns out to have had changes or developments not all parties were aware of. Clients have a habit of providing you with info on a need to know basis, or at least what they think you need to know. We just signed our contract and after studying the project files in existence embarked on the concept design, only to find out that major packages have already been issued for tender by the contractor. Our project is in China and the local design institute had already moved ahead. Our meeting was with the client and design consultants and only after querying the time schedule the client informed us. No problem, we will just fast forward to DD (design development)! We are basically left to
select the light fittings….

Of course we need to do our due diligence and make sure the architectural concept works and there is still room to move a bit, but with all budgets more or less logged in, our options are limited. The good thing is the project is fast forwarding, which i$ what we like. 🙂

As we are in the middle of some façade lighting design in Light Watch today some interesting designs that can be found around the world, all with some different lighting techniques. A Child eye care centre in London, UK, uses floodlit colorful structures, an
office building in Singapore uses LED integrated glass, The Grand Casino in Basel, Switserland, uses backlit LED glass and The Rundle Lantern in Adelaide, Australia, uses white panels with RGB LED up lights.