PRACTICE OVERVIEW
For centuries, architects have been tasked with creating buildings and spaces that, in their basic sense, provide a return on investment for the financier.
That return, particularly in the private sector, has been traditionally measured as a bottomline figure, primarily focussed on the financial value a building provides to a property or area.
But times have changed, and so too have the metrics of ROI.
With the growing awareness surrounding things such as climate change, mental health and socio-economic inequality comes a heightened sense of responsibility for people and businesses to make more conscious decisions. Choices are no longer considered just your own, particularly when they impact the environment and the community that surrounds you.
In the built environment, this has transpired into a new set of ROI metrics which place the environmental and social responsibility of a project alongside its financial benefit. It’s called triple bottom line thinking and has led some of Australia’s most awarded and successful architectural projects of the past decade.
But as will always be the case, balancing the commercial incentives of a project with its social and environmental benefit is a constant process of negotiation, one which Rob Mccray, principal at MODE Design is all too aware of.
Mccray and the team at MODE have been delivering projects across a wide range of sectors and for a broad client base for decades now, so they understand firsthand what those negotiations look like. And with all that experience comes a highly-knowledgeable perspective, one which has given birth to a new procurement tool helping MODE (and which may help you) deliver very successful projects in the broader business, social and community contexts.
INNOVATION CAPITALISATION
It may be a difficult concept to explain, but in essence, it has to be one of the most instinctive forms of architectural thinking there is. MODE calls it Innovation Capitalisation (IC) and describes it as ‘design thinking’ tool but really it could be explained as a highly responsible, considered and assertive approach to procurement.
“IC as a concept developed from a review of our most successful projects over a 10-year period,” explains Mccray.
“From this review it became evident that we were using the concept as an intuitive response to a brief in order to get the best out of every project for our clients and end-users.”
That response involves both a unique approach to a brief as well as a thorough understanding of the socio-political, environmental, technical and commercial landscapes we live in. It is through this approach and knowledge that MODE unlocks partnership and collaborative opportunities within a project with the intention of adding value and meaning to a building outside of its primary function.
“IC considers not only what is required to deliver a project, but why our clients are committing finances and resources to this project,” says Mccray.
“By understanding the key drivers of a project, it allows our team to identify strategically aligned opportunities and to collaborate with specialist providers, groups, businesses and government with the sole outcome of creating better communities through unique design.”
These opportunities, discovered during the IC investigation, are what MODE calls Capital in Reserve and are identified through MODE’S quadruple bottom line metrics of social, environmental, economic and educative value. Key to MODE’S thinking is that this capital would remain ‘in reserve’, were it not for the IC process.
CAPITAL IN RESERVE
The trick to unlocking this capital, says Mccray, is to drill deep down into the client’s intentions and imperatives for a project and then prove how innovative design can best meet them.
This was the case for MODE’S Auckland South Correctional Facility project in Wira, New Zealand where the client expressed a desire to provide a facility that would reduce the incidence of recidivism within New Zealand’s prison system.
MODE presented the client with two major factors that contribute to recidivism – access to affordable housing and low literacy levels – and then presented a design and program which would explicitly address these issues.
The ‘capital’ in this instance is measured within the metrics of community, social and economic benefit which is provided by the building. By actively addressing the burden recidivism has on these measures, MODE demonstrated to the client the way innovative design can help reverse it.
Working with the client and other nonprofits, MODE based the architecture of the Auckland South Correctional Facility on a progressive model of accommodation, which rewards prisoner rehabilitation. As offenders progress with their rehabilitation, they are rewarded with better accommodation and facilities situated in different parts of the prison compound. Upon their release, non-profits continue to work with the prisoners in offsite accommodation to prevent reoffending.
MODE also incorporated life skills training into the architecture program, which in turn provides economic, social and educative benefit to the centre and the community. Inmates build furniture and fabricate items for external businesses to sell, while literacy and numeracy classes are linked to the rehabilitation program and provide life skills proven to prevent reoffending.
Back home in Australia, MODE also adopted IC for its design of the Groote Eylandt Cultural Centres in the Northern Territory, which it delivered for the remote island’s community groups of Angurugu and Umbakumba.
Facilitated through extensive community consultation sessions, MODE was able to isolate the imperative components of the project, and then work with various commercial and community parties to develop a design program that exceeds traditional architectural models.
Both centres provide a number of important services, but more than that, they also provide a real sense of identity, connection and ultimately, investment from the community within the buildings. IC in this instance has identified capital within the metrics of community and social value and, through responsive design and intense collaboration, delivered a project which provides a high ROI.
Key to both the Groote Eylandt Cultural Centres and the Auckland South Correctional Facility projects is the investment from the client, facilitated through MODE’S IC, in capital outside traditional bottom-line thinking.
MODE demonstrates how IC, and ultimately the architect, can provide a client with a new set of metrics to consider when assessing the ROI of a project.
FROM TRIPLE TO QUADRAUPLE BOTTOM LINE
Like many contemporary architectural practices, MODE places significant importance on the integration of social, economic and environmental value in its design processes. Where MODE may differ from other firms (at least explicitly) is in its emphasis on the educative benefit good architecture provides to the community.
Case in point is MODE’S new Learning Centre designed for Windaroo Valley State High School in Queensland. Working with the school’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) students, MODE produced a walk-through Virtual Reality animation of the new school, showcasing both the design intent and the design process to the students in a realistic and engaging way.
Another example is the firm’s much-awarded Bullocky Point Education Precinct, a threestorey highly sustainable education building which sits at the interface of The Northern Territory School of Distance Education (NTSDE) and Darwin High School. BPEP provides a new public interface for parents and visitors to both schools as well as an opportunity for students to interact and take advantage of the centre’s cutting-edge learning technologies.
A study tour and numerous stakeholder workshops were undertaken by MODE to determine the highly specialised technology and design requirements for the building. From this, and through the application of IC, the existing design model was challenged and changed to incorporate feedback from those stakeholders likely to use and enjoy the project.
Key to MODE’S philosophy in both these examples is the motive of closing the information gap separating the architect and the end-user of a project. Intense consultation allowed MODE to deliver on this motive because stakeholders were so actively engaged in the shaping of the project’s design intent.
MODE shows how involving the community and end users in design consultation enhances the social value of the project. Further, it also demonstrates how educating occupants about a building’s intended use can increase the project’s level of community investment.
THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT IN SHIFTING THE ROI METRICS
Rob Mccray has been practicing for decades and witnessed firsthand the evolving role of the architect in project delivery.
And while Mccray, like most architects, laments the way architects have been shunned from the roles of project and construction management and pigeonholed as design consultants, he is also quietly happy with the way MODE has managed to inject itself back into the fold.
Mccray notes that architects are in a great position to capitalise on the new public consciousness influencing the way buildings and landscapes are valued within the broader social context. Providing value on the new metrics of ROI requires innovative thinking and design development, both of which architects are in the premier position to do.
“We believe this is incredible opportunity for architects to develop ideas which have great reach into our environments and communities,” says Mccray.
“But this will be limited only by how much individuals want to give back rather than take from opportunities.”
For MODE, IC provides the platform to not only deliver innovative designs that give back to the community and environment, but also designs that require engagement from the architect throughout the lifecycle of a project.
In many ways, MODE, like many other firms in contemporary Australia, is re-establishing the importance of architects and innovative design thinking in the delivery of a high-quality, functional and responsible built environment.
“The trick to unlocking this capital is to drill deep down into the client’s intentions and imperatives for a project and then prove how innovative design can best meet them.”