Marking up

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Bandung, 6^th May 2014

Bandung today and tomorrow; a lovely little city (well, a few million people, third biggest city in Indonesia I am told!) nestled in the hills with a much nicer and cooler climate then Jakarta. The project I m working on is one where I for once don’t really need to produce anything other them my professional recommendations by simply marking up drawings produced by the in-house architect. Of course my fees are equally lower since I do not have intensive submission packages to produce.

But it is a strange position as the challenge here is to define responsibility. As I am not producing any technical documentation, my role is purely advisory and in the end whether they execute my recommendations or not is not really my problem…or is it? As an added complication there do not seem to be any coordinated ceiling plans (yet). On top of that it seems site is already moving forward with closing out the ceilings (based on some old MEP layout plans) so I wonder in how far any of my recommendations will be able to be implemented. As always lighting (consultancy) seems to be at the bottom end of the initial requirements and now that the hotel operator insisted in getting us on board to salvage whatever possible from the engineered lighting design, we are playing catch up all the way.

But truth be told the client does seem to appreciate the recommendations and while he is reluctant to back track on work already done he has indicated that he will implement the proposed changes if it can be done without major delay and additional costs to the program. He did follow through on this when I prepared similar recommendations for the mock up room, so I have good faith that he will do his best to implement whatever is reasonably possible…I for my side do have the pride in my work to care that it indeed will happen and will follow through with the site team to give any assistance as needed. But in the end this project is fairly relaxed as he can either heed or disregard my advice…

Light Watch 5-75: Travelling means staying in hotels and sometimes we come across little gems…this one is a cute little boutique hotel up in the hills, no frills, but all cosy with the basic comfort and needs…