The team was able to balance the different and often competing interests of stakeholders using a range of techniques, including use of Virtual Reality (VR) to simulate how the new building would work and help them understand and contribute to the design..
It’s the finer details that change from car to car - the wheels, trim, engine, bodywork… Similarly, Ikea use a limited kit of components to create their various pieces of furniture.It doesn’t matter whether you’re making a bed, wardrobe or bookcase, most of the connecting pieces are the same.
Construction Platforms allow us to apply this same type of thinking to built assets.Yes, those assets require flexibility, but the need for flexibility doesn’t have to be at odds with standardisation.Using P-DfMA, we can have both..
Flexibility in modular construction.At Bryden Wood, it’s a guiding principle that we never compromise the design to fit the system.
Rather, our aim is to allow a level of flexibility in the components to resolve the tension between the need for optimisation and variability – what the market wants, or clients need.
For example, with the Platform to superstructure, we have a series of standard connection brackets, which link the beams and columns.This is a unique advantage of our Chip Thinking®️ process.. Rather than showing increasingly detailed plans and elevations, we represent the solution in terms of what it does to solve the client’s problem.
For a prison that needs to be more rehabilitative, this means: showing what is visible from where; how activities are distributed across the buildings and the site; how the buildings are zoned and controlled to allow free movement while controlling who goes where.For a pharmaceutical plant that needs to satisfy uncertain demand in an emerging market, this could entail seeing the capacity of the production equipment, its utilisation, the labour required to operate it, and the flexibility of the equipment to produce either different or more products..
In each case the representation is driven by what client and stakeholders need to see to satisfy themselves that the proposed solution meets their needs, but also to inform the wider team to decide what the next design iteration needs to look like to create an even better and more detailed solution.. At the end of this process, we have not simply a good design but also a transparent account of how expert knowledge and stakeholder requirements steered the decision-making process.This not only gives our clients the confidence that they have got the right solution, but ensures they understand why this design is preferable over all others.