The Blueprint of Success: Navigating Design-Led Real Estate Development
The Blueprint of Success: Navigating Design-Led Real Estate Development
Unveiling the Core of Innovation, Sustainability, and Community Engagement in Development Projects
In this week's letter, I'll unravel the potential value and upside that a Design-Led Development process offers, underscoring its essential role in the success of any project.
As a trained architect, I place significant emphasis on the design quality achieved in each of my developments. I value both the minute details and the broader strategic decisions impacting critical townscape issues that affect Town Planning.
For me, design is not merely an add-on; it's the driving force behind creating successful, enduring development projects that are cherished by their users every day.
Real estate is no longer just about four walls and relying on location for value appreciation.
Scott Rechler, RXR CEO
Below are 5 key outcomes that Design-Led Development will help achieve:
Enhanced leasing and sales success.
Superior product quality.
Fulfilling customer requirements.
Streamlined planning process.
Community-embraced spaces.
Now, let's dive in.
Distinctive design accelerates leasing & sales
Design is a key factor in helping differentiate a real estate product in the market. Differentiation and a rigorous product market fit can help accelerate leasing or sales.
Good design should strike a balance between providing a timeless product and adding enough personality to create a distinctive identity:
Timeless: today we owe it to the planet to create products that can endure the test of time. This requires designs that focus on getting the basics right. Building orientation, structure, envelope, and planning grid, should all follow follow standardised principles. This will make it much easier to adapt a building to a different use further into the future.
Timeless = Sustainable
Personality: Public-facing interiors like lobbies, branding, and interior design in general can afford to be more distinctive.
How do we add a hospitality experience to office interiors?
Is there a distinctive townscape that can be exploited to emphasise the identity of the scheme?
How is technology integrated within the building to create unique customer experiences?
Personality touches should always work with the Architectural character to achieve a common language.
100 Bishopsgate in London provides a good example of how a development approach with strong design leadership helped the asset achieve more than 70% of pre-let space ahead of its practical completion in 2019. This is quite an achievement for a building that is providing c.900k sq. ft. of office space to the market.
Royal Bank of Canada picks Brookfield’s 100 Bishopsgate for its new UK headquarters
Royal Bank of Canada picks Brookfield’s 100 Bishopsgate for its new UK headquarters
Design quality = Product Quality
Design is frequently misconceived as merely creating shiny objects or applying aesthetic flair.
Applying a rigorous design approach that evaluates every key design decision ensures that the quality of the product will be achieved and maintained.
In this context quality is not about aesthetics but is about:
Providing solutions that help with reducing maintenance costs.
Providing attention to detail so that spaces are functional and usable by different demographic groups.
Functionality comes before aesthetic flair. Something should work before making it look good.
This is usually achieved by zooming in on the less extravagant details of an asset.
Below are a few examples:
Washroom design = > compact to optimise space, whilst still being fit-for-purpose.
The ability to properly maintain and replace plant equipment without the need for cranes or helicopters.
Understanding customer’s journeys. How do they arrive at the building, where do they enter and how will they be greeted? How is the space designed to facilitate this?
Tailoring spaces around customer needs
Grasping customer desires is fundamental to creating a successful product. Designing for the customer means paying high attention to every detail to ensure the product is fit for purpose.
Human-centricity has today become a main theme. Every real estate asset class is reinventing itself around a customer-service-focused approach to delivering real estate.
The key to achieving this is applying:
User-Centric Design Approaches.
Design that caters for Diverse Demographics.
Designing spaces that can stay relevant with changing occupier needs.
WeWork, despite all its business failings, has opened the floodgates to a huge influx of Flexible Office space operators. Guess what, it seems like customers are demanding this kind of experience. Check out these WeWork spaces in Bengaluru.
Expediting the planning process
To crystallise a project’s value, planning consent is an absolute requirement. Without it, the development will never see the light of day. Projects located in major cities are required to display an attentive approach to design to present a compelling Townscape argument that wins over the Planning Authority.
Navigating the planning process efficiently requires a competent design process and a strong team of designers.
Planning authorities love a great story and are very attentive to the narrative behind presented proposals.
Key elements to success are:
Having a clear strategy.
Being adaptable to change.
Know when to back off.
Conclusion
As we wrap up this exploration of Design-Led Development, it's clear that integrating thoughtful design is not just an aesthetic choice but a strategic investment.
By focusing on sustainability, functionality, and community engagement, we pave the way for projects that are not only successful in the immediate term but also cherished for generations.
I invite you to join me in embracing this approach, where design serves as the cornerstone of innovation and success in real estate development.
That’s all for today.
See you next week.
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