DESIGN SPECIFICATION

WE CAN PREPARE A CUSTOM SPECIFICATION FOR ANY DESIGN WORK

You may have had detailed design work done by another architect or designer, but want to maximise the sustainability of the project. Maybe you already have a DA (Development Consent), but want more detail added to the construction documents.

This will help future-proof your investment, as regulation and market expectation moves to 6 Stars and beyond, energy costs continue to rise, and mandatory disclosure* comes in.

We can start by reviewing the design work  to get a complete picture of what is planned, and following discussion around your sustainability and future-proofing goals, write a complete Specification to support that, with sustainability embedded into it.

We write specifications that will maximise the design’s potential in…
thermal performance and passive design
low operational energy and efficiency
water efficiency
waste water treatment and reuse
indoor air quality and zero-toxicity
low embodied energy
minimised off-site and production impacts.

The detailed content will be guided by your budget, and the kind of construction contract you have – or want to have – with your builder. Each project has its own unique constraints, and we work within these to optimise the very best result possible. We believe – and are told by our clients – that we add value to the result way beyond the nominal extra cost.

Call or email to discuss what we can do for you and your project.

*mandatory disclosure
There is a national framework for all states and territories to introduce mandatory disclosure of thermal performance at point of sale. This has been on the agenda at CoAG (Council of Australian Governments, instigated by a range of state governments) for some years. The ACT introduced it in 1997, and Qld introduced it in 2011. Other states are following close behind.

Future-proofing: it is part of the groundswell of change to more sustainable buildings that has begun to transform the housing market, which will accelerate in the next 5 to 10 years. You are well advised to make your big investment ready for that change, or it will be devalued by the market, as has happened to poorly rated houses in the ACT: a 1.5 star house is 15% lower valued than an otherwise equivalent 5 star house, and takes 6 weeks longer to sell (REIACT, 2009).