What happens at project establishment and feasibility?
Before the first line is drawn, the project has to be defined well enough to design. The decisions made here carry through every stage that follows.
What happens at the project establishment and feasibility stage?
It is the stage before design starts. The brief is set, client information such as the survey and title is gathered, the site is tested for access, ground and slope, the planning pathway and building class are identified, and the first programme and budget are framed. Decisions made here shape every later stage, so they are made with care.
Every project we deliver opens with project establishment and feasibility. It comes before the eight design stages and before any construction, and its job is to define the project well enough that design can start on solid ground.
It is also where the big idea is set. Every project opens with one question about what that idea is, and once it is set it is held through to completion.
The brief
The brief describes who the building is for and what it has to do. For special-use accommodation that means the stream, the number of dwellings, the residents' needs and, for Specialist Disability Accommodation, the design category being sought.
It also captures how the building will be run. A provider's operational needs, such as staff space, overnight support and how residents share the home, shape the plan as much as any planning control. Those needs are covered in [what an accommodation provider needs from a builder](/blog/what-an-accommodation-provider-needs-from-a-builder).
Client information
Some information can only come from the client. The title and any restrictions on it, the survey, any existing reports on the ground or the services, and anything already agreed with the council or a provider.
Gaps found at this stage cost little to fill. The same gaps found during documentation can stall a design stage while someone waits for a report.
Testing the site
A modular project needs answers that a conventional project can leave until later. Can a module reach the site by road? Where does the crane stand? What is overhead? How does the ground fall, and what does that mean for the base structure?
Those checks are set out in [site constraints that decide modular viability](/blog/site-constraints-that-decide-modular-viability). They are made now because the answers change the design.
The planning pathway and building class
The approval pathway is identified at the start, because a complying development pathway needs the design inside its standards from the first sketch, while a development application allows a merit case. The options are explained in [planning pathways for special-use accommodation in NSW](/blog/planning-pathways-for-special-use-accommodation-nsw).
The building class under the National Construction Code is identified at the same time, because it sets fire, egress and separation requirements the plan has to carry.
The factory and site split
In Hybrid Volumetric Modular, the balance between factory works and site works is set per project. A level site may suit a higher share of factory work, while a sloping or constrained site may need more of the base structure built in place.
Proposing that split early lets the programme be planned with the factory and the site running in parallel from the start.
Programme and cost
The first programme and budget are framed here, with the parallel delivery shown rather than assumed. For an investor or developer, this is where the feasibility is tested: how long capital is committed, when the project reaches income-producing status, and what a shorter programme does to holding costs.
The mechanics are set out in [how Hybrid Volumetric Modular changes a development feasibility](/blog/how-hvm-changes-a-development-feasibility).
What closes the stage
The stage closes with an agreed brief, a site that has been tested, a chosen pathway and a programme and budget everyone can work to. From there the design begins with schematic design, set against the brief, the site and SDA where it applies.
MADEmodular / MADEbetter.
MADEmodular / MADEbetter.