Beauty of Design within Budget

Where does the beauty of design lie? What makes certain designs stand out?

It's probably subjective to each individual's taste and experience, but one thing in reality is budget. It won't be as hard to design something with limitless budget, but that's not possible. In the real world, we all have to work with a budget and a schedule. When there is a set of limitations, it's all about making decisions. You've got to pick and choose.

Last week, I was lucky enough to watch how our creative team came up with a design that's out-of-box and still within a budget. Gosh, that's the moment I really admire the capability of human creativity.

WOW

When I see an amazing building, I can't help myself but wonder. Who designed it? What inspired him or her? How many people contributed to its schematic design? Who did the construction design? Was it easy or hard? How many white nights were spent contemplating one line, one angle, or one side of that building? Who was the builder? How long did it take? How was the process? Were the workers proud or just busy getting the job done?

People say it takes a village to raise child. I say it takes a village to build a building. (But then, the child designs a new village.)

April Fool

On the first day of April, I am back to my office, trying to visualize the impossible, perfect scenario of a wonderful project. Meaning, a imaginative client with no financial restrictions asking us to build a picture perfect, eco-friendly office building. Of course, the reality is the opposite, more often than not. The client is always under a lot of financial stress, and the site has all sorts of challenges.

One thing that can narrow the gap between the ideal world and the real world is who your GC is. Because, more often than not, experienced veteran GC's foresee what lies ahead in the construction process and try to help the client go through that with less stress.

If you know a GC with that kind of calibar and that kind of heart, you are this close to a perfect, wonderful project, whatever that is.

First Step

There is always the first step in everything. This blog site wants to be the first step closer toward the two way communication channel that I would like to create between the construction professionals and the public. Of course there are numerous people on the fence, life me, for example, who are interested in construction and architecture but can't exactly call themselves construction professionals. As a marketing personnel at an architectural company, I often feel like an auxiliary, not exactly the main forte. However, one thing I understand is that no building can be built purely with numbers and lines. Best construction projects of any size are possible when the communication flows smoothly, and without language, you can't really communicate.

As a matter of fact, this is my theme for the next Newsletter column: Effective communication for quality construction projects. Right now I am still brainstorming for it.

The truth is, even if you are not actually playing the ball game out in the field, you still get excited about it. In some sense, construction business has a lot in common with sport. It excites everybody around, whether you are players or spectators. When you see a superb performance or a superb building or room in a building, your jaw drops and go wow. The basics of the whole operation is pretty simple: you throw, catch, hit, or kick the ball to score (for sport) or you measure, plan, and put the things together (for construction). Finally, everybody knows a little about it, and has done a little here and there. There are millions of amateurs and fans and some professionals, but a handful of the best.