Direct approach from a client like Ty Coon is a very rare opportunity that should be grabbed quickly. By opening our own
practice we could develop the expertise in architectural career. We decide to resign from Olds, Ko
...
Direct approach from a client like Ty Coon is a very rare opportunity that should be grabbed quickly. By opening our own
practice we could develop the expertise in architectural career. We decide to resign from Olds, Kool, and Kitsch and
open the new company under our own name: Cozy Architecture
We indicate several problems that could affect our new practice. First is the risk of having threat from previous
company, especially due to Ty Coon (our sole client) previous business interaction with OKK. Second, there is a
possibility to get restraint of trade agreement from OKK. Third, issue with intellectual property right regarding all the
knowledge and experience from previous company. Fourth is how to establish the practice image and business
structure.
In response to the issues we decide to take several step of actions:
1. Go through legal procedure to make a clean practice start.
2. Check the Copyright Act
3. Join with another two partners who have varied background and expertise, to complement the team.
4. Discuss the business structure and divide roles between the partners.
5. Discuss business vision, mission, and write business plan.
6. Discuss, compose, and write down the agreement with all the partners
7. Rent an office, and fill it in. (Business preparation)
8. Generating the work – response to direct approach from the client (Ty Coon)
Our new firm work with Ty Coon progress smoothly but we need to expand and stabilize our firm by increase
our client base. With our new practice been set up between four partners, we decide to divide the works based
on our expertise area. Natalie Jones that previously worked in Olds, Kool and Kitsch will act as director and
handle all property development and residential projects while Hannah Ray, which worked previously in the
same company, will take all public and sustainability projects. Other partners Kate Moles will strive for sport
facility project with Gerry Mander and also work in sustainability projects and Jessica Elba will be charge with
residential and pursue for International Competition which in the same time introduce and advertise our
company capability to world.
We decide that 40% our services will come from residential projects and property management, 30% from
sustainability projects, 20% from public and sport projects and 10% from international competition
In this case, bundling services seems to be more suitable to this project. Bundling services is one of our marketing
strategy that combined the services in order to sell them as a single combined unit. This bundling services will include
core design services, special services, and also supplementary services for the School’s new Library and Sustainable
Technology (LAST) Centre.
As all of us previously have diverse experiences and focus on sustainability project, it will give opportunities to provide
unique services related to the sustainable aspect. According to Justin Time asked for in addition to the standard services
such as heritage study, post occupancy evaluation, maintenance schedule, life cycle cost analysis and energy audit. All
these supplementary and special services need more work and will be charged in additional fees that will increase our
fee and profit.
In order to submit our design services proposal to Justin Time, we should states a clearly define services to be provided
and limitation of those services. We also need to establish realistic fees for defining services and we should obtain
client’s agreement to the defined services in writing form. In that agreement should state the clause that will protect the
integrity of the design.
E
2.2.1 Summary of Response to Various Issues
In response to issues about the competitive fee proposal, where the risk of losing the job is high due to overly high
charge, there are benchmarks that can be used as a controller. First is the percentage cost estimation, second is the
experience about the fee from previous work. Complete and detailed fee estimation can be achieved when the
consultant has justified with:
1. Annual expenses / cost analysis
2. Hourly rate estimation
3. Detailed program of architectural scope of work
4. Program of work
For designing the fee proposal, management strategy such as incentive and bonus management could be included. This
incentive program is listed as a part of overall annual expense. There are two types of incentives: cash incentives, and
workshop or training incentives. On the following section there are detail break down of annual expense, hourly rate for
each employee in the company, and fee proposal. Base on the calculation, our annual target income in 2015 is AUD
$1,042,584.9. Derived from this target we could calculate the hourly rate for the employees.
The schedule is used to calculate time expenses and type of personnel needed in the project. In the schedule it is
explained that we will finish all design work and be ready for the tender within eight months. Pre-design stage requires
12 days (2 weeks plus 2 days), schematic design stage requires 15 days (3 weeks), detailed design stage will require 5
weeks, and design documentation will require 14 weeks. Shortly, our total consultation fee for the project is AUD $
594,430 with condition (in the agreement) that if there is revision of the brief and schedule, then the fee needs to be
adjusted.
After detailed fee proposal is finished and approved by the client, then this fee proposal could be included in the ClientArchitect Agreement. Monitoring, evaluation and controlling during the execution should be made by using several tools
such as time-chart, time sheets, monthly invoice, and cash flow analysis
COZY Architecture is small and developing firm that provides professional services in design sector. We are specializing in
outstanding architectural design that incorporates sustainability. We believe in designing the next future buildings which
are green and sustainable. Sustainability is the overarching concept of using less to do more. In our firm, we focus on our
first priorities- high quality delivery and customer satisfaction. Our team is small but all our personnel have worked both
in the private and public sector which make us able to approach any kind of method use in projects. We believe our small
size provides a distinct advantage to our clients and affords us the freedom to easily team with the clients to achieve
overall best possible result.
COZY Architecture has our own philosophy to guide our performance in services:
Perform work in accurate, timely and professional manner
Deliver high quality services to our clients
Working closely with client and builders, to continually improve the final outcome.
Provide multiple and the best solution whenever possible to clients.
Maintain professional competency through training and education.
Our practice is combination of young designers that strive to create creativity while sustain in every aspect of design. We
believe every place and every client is unique, architecture is the response.
Our professional staff is supported by ACAD (Architectural Computer aided Design), REVIT, sustainable analysis tools and
three dimensional visualization/animation tools that consistently been update to coordinate with our client. The firm’s
integrated approach with latest technologies to allow us to deliver high quality products and been effective in our
production cost.
2. QUALITY ASSURANCE
CASE STUDY EXERCISE 3 – CLIENT NEGOTIATION
2.3.1 Summary of Response to Various Issues
Table 9 - Summary of response to client negotiation issue
Problems Analysis Action
Alternative of action Facts
The meaning of
professional
negligence in
our business
practice context.
Professional negligence is a
breach of the duty of care
between professionals and
their clients. The duty of care
is a common law
arrangement where the
client expects a level of
professionalism and
standards commonly held by
those in profession.4
In other word, professional
negligence is if we accept
any requested service from
the client which we are not
listed in our service practice
and not in our expertise.5
List down the clear statement
of our business practice
services in the consultancy
proposal or before the client
meeting.
Provide a list of consequences
which might occur at our side
or client side if this issue
happen.
The client would
like to meet up
for further
discussion
regarding on the
proposal.
There are several
requirement that has to be
done before the meeting
session:
1. Provide a clear statement
of scope of services
2. Provide a careful study
program of the proposal
to ensure the control of
time which related to the
total fee and profit.
3. Prepare the overall
specification of the
project to ensure the
quality is under the
supervision and highly
controlled.
3.1 CASE STUDY EXERCISE 2 – CLIENT AND ARCHITECT AGREEMENTS
3.1.1 Summary of Response to Various Issues
In the case presented, relationship between consultant and the client remains the same, with exception that now the
consultant’s role is limited to consultancy only without any liability to deal with administrative and management scope
of work. It means that the consultant can focus on design. Fee for the consultant is not affected by Justin’s profit or fee.
During meeting the client will interact with the consultant directly even though all financial administrative will go
through Justin Time.
Related with agreement issue, if the client wants to propose a new agreement similar to DPW General Condition of
Contract for Consultancy Services, there are several points that need to be negotiated:
License to use all design and intellectual property right only for this site and time frame of the project.
Proposed detail scope of work.
Proposed schedule for meetings, documentation, fees, and reimbursable cost. So the consultant, project
manager, and the client can both understand the required time for meetings throughout the project.
Limit of suspension time so that the consultant can decide to dedicate the time with another project.
Termination time should be informed by written notice two weeks prior to the termination.
Insurance for any accident in loss of data and injuries/death.
3.2 CASE STUDY EXERCISE 3 – SECONDARY AND SUB-CONSULTANT AGREEMENTS (COMPULSORY)
3.2.1 Summary of Response to Various Issues
In a form of valid contract, the essential elements required are:
the intention to create a legal relationship
offer and acceptance
consideration
capacity of the parties
reality of consent
legality of object
All those six essential elements must exist before the contract form. If the contract has not included one element
mentioned above, the contract is not legal. The special consultant’s issue is they want to increase their original fee
submission by 10%. There is no obligation for my company to pay 10% increment as there is no contract yet between my
company and those consultants. So, the next move are try to negotiate to eliminate the 10% or just look for the other
special consultants. As they are sub-consultants, they have no direct contract with the school. Hence, these issues will
not affect our contract with the school. CASE STUDY EXERCISE 1 – ANALYZING THE CLIENT’S BRIEF
4.1.1 Summary of Response to Various Issues
Table 12 - Summary of response to changing brief issue
Problems/issues
Analysis
Analysis /alternative of action Facts /pro & con Actions
Over budget cost
estimation and
excessive building
size than indicated
in brief.
There always a chance for
missing something when
planning the budget. Some
conditions that can give effect
the cost are market conditions,
materials, regional costs, added
requirements, coordination
issues and other unforeseen
situation, that can arise during
design process
Sometimes clients do not realize
the related size of project and
incidental costs and their impact
on the budget.
Sometimes, even with clear
budget guidelines, project can
come over budget as much as
50% including land acquisition.
Even without the land, many
overall budgets would allocate
less than 60 percent to the
general building cost6.
The estimation is very
general at the preliminary
stage and not has enough
information to determine
costs of construction. The
attempt budget that
calculate all the major
component costs should
have some cost indicated as
placeholder allocation/
contingency cost to the
project.
Contingency fund act like
‘insurance policy” to help
establish adjustment to the
budget in case unexpected
expenses happen.
Establish point in client
contract mention any change
of costs during briefing phase
is client responsibility.7
Since the scope and budget
not aligned with the
indicated brief. We decide to
take analysis using value
engineering technique.
The design will be determine
through the appropriate
balance between quality and
quantity in order to
consistent with the owner’s
program and budget.
Value engineering
Systematic process used by
multidisciplinary team that
agree to focus on, in order to
achieved the essential functions
at lowest life cycle consistent
with required performance,
reliability, availability, quality
and safety by analyzing
functions of project, product,
process, system, design or
service.8
In schematic design,
architects should already
have knowledge on client’s
program and the quality
need to correspond with the
assumed unit prices that
need to fit with allocated
budget. The assumed units
must not exceed the
budget.
After analyzing, we came out
with several solutions
1. Reduce solution can be
apply in space area. Scale
back the size of project. Any
area that not really important
or oversize or not serve the
purpose of project as
sustainable project can be
CASE STUDY EXERCISE 3 – CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENT
4.2.1 Summary of Response to Various Issues
Table 13 - Summary of response to issues about construction time (cut 4 weeks)
Problems Analysis Action
Alternative of action Facts
The meaning of
‘date for practical
completion’ in
our business
practice context.
The meaning of ‘date for
practical completion is
completion of all the
construction work that has
to be done.
Practical completion can be
certified where there are
very minor items of work left
incomplete.
Practical completion also
defined as a state of affairs
which the works have been
completed free from patent
defects, other than ones can
be ignored as trifling.
Failure to complete works by
specified completion date
means the contractor is in
breach of contract.10
We will be the person in
charge to qualify whether the
building is practically
completed or not.
During this stage if there is
any defects, the contractor
should apply for extension of
date practical completion.
After final inspection and at
the state of satisfactory, we
will issue the final certificate
for hand over to the client
that state the building is
ready to occupy.
The client request
us to investigate
the feasibility of
bringing the date
for practical
completion
forward by 4
weeks.
If the client ask for changes
of date for practical
completion by forwarded 4
weeks:
1. We will prepare the
detailed program
process to make sure
that the client
acknowledge all the
sequences if there is any
changes of the date.
2. We will further study
about the possibility of
changes of the date.
3. We will shorten the
timeframe of the overall
1. The changes of date for
practical completion by
tightening the program
may affect the entire
performance of the
project.
2. There is also high
possibility of low quality
of detail design
specification if the time
work has been cut.
The overall time table of work
program is originally:
14 weeks: complete
documentation
6 weeks: to call tenders
4 weeks: to assess
tenders, report to School
Council and appoint a
contractor.
18 months: construction
During the 4 weeks before the
expected date for practical
completion, the construction
work progress is basically
almost finish.
10 http://www.hklegal.co.uk/2012/05/28/practical-completion-what-does-it-mean/52
process by working
overtime.
4. We will set up meeting
with the sub consultant
involve to ask for change
of time work progress
If the client would ask for 4
weeks forward from the
agreed date for practical
completion, it could be done
by revising the time schedule
during the construction
period.
All the subconsultant
indicate that they
might be able to
reduce their
program by 1-2
weeks except for
Con Crete.
If the consultant agreed to
forward by 1-2 weeks except
for concrete, we will:
1. Revised the agreement
with the consultant that
has been made at the
earlier stage.
2. Discuss with the client if
they agreed to increase
they payment if the sub
consultant has to double
up their time work or
working overtime.
3. If the client refuse to
increase the fees, we
will restructured the
timeframe schedule
with the agreement
from the sub consultant.
1. The changes of date for
practical completion also
will resulted to a breach
of agreement with the
sub consultant if they
are not able to perform
the best service to the
program.
2. Besides, this issue also
might contribute to loss
of agreement with the
sub consultant.
3. If the sub consultant has
to work overtime, there
will be increased of total
fees.
Since all the sub consultant
agreed to reduce their program
by 1-2 weeks, the time schedule
for construction can be
shortened. If the changes has
been made, the agreement with
the sub consultant should be
revised to avoid any legal issue.
Except for Con Crete, they might
not able to reduce their program
due to the tight work load of
their practice. Due to this issue,
there are two solutions which
could be done:
1. Tighten the work schedule
or
2. Working overtime
However, these solutions will
increase the total fees.
On the other hand, if the client
don’t want to pay any extra fees
for the changes, we could
revised the construction
timetable by targeting the
overall building structure
completed earlier than expected
date.
Besides, by 4 weeks before the
date for practical completion,
the building structure should be
finished. So it will not going to be
a big problem if Con Crete
couldn’t reduce their timetable
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