Design fees paid twice

I introduced myself to the development manager of a large multi-company last week, and during the conversation, I remarked that he might not know, but we had already done a project together. He gave me a puzzled look and indicated that he knew exactly what the project was, but that we were not the designers, it was another firm.

In fact, you can tell me that the plans are very well done.

I smiled at his reaction because the plans were very good indeed.

It was just that it was not the original designer, but rather the contractor.

We had a contract with him, and our job was to build a prototype of the house in virtual space from paper plans.

When we did this, we found about 3-400 design flaws that would normally have only become apparent at the construction site, but by detecting and correcting them in time, we prevented the problem before it caused additional work and delayed deadlines.

We then added accurate material data to the design and created a project web platform where the model was synchronized with the plans.

In this, we operated an error ticket management system, speeding up change management and communication. What’s more, you could take the plans and the overall section model to the construction site in AR on a plain mobile phone, so everyone knew exactly what and where to build.

We built the digital model of the house,
and accelerated change management.

A little side effect is that we scanned the construction site every month, compared it with the design model, and provided a list of inaccuracies and construction errors that could cause problems later.

With this small clarification, the investor’s statement – that the plans were very good – was indeed correct, and we are also pleased to have contributed to a good project and to the positive image of another office.

All parties were satisfied, which could only have been a more fortunate situation if we were the general designer by default and the client only had to pay the design fee once.