Our Story Journey
The Placemark story journey started in 1997...
Summary of our story journey is in the small steps we made in sharing added value. Our Story, our journeyBuilding is costly and hard to time. It requires a considerable pool for unexpected contingencies. And many of our friends, like us, didn't have the necessary resources to build in the first place. And when we thought about it there really was another solution: - A development projplanning permit for one more dwelling in the backyard. Adding a plan for another building can add considerably more value to the land on the dollar then the less predictable and more costly renovation and extension. The problem of course was that the those plans would have to be straightforward enough and also symphatetic to the neighbours and the council...Not an easy mix, but by then we learned a thing or two about efficient space planning and designing to neighbourhood character -- which turned out to be two important keys in developing the optimum solution. So we thought: - Hey, we could help those folks. And Placemark was born. Space planning and neighboorhood character analysis Our first clients were: Itec Computer Training, the company we rented space from and needed new spaces from same or other premises. And The street we lived temporarily that wanted to pool talents to object at the tribunal to an eyesore development in the neighbourhood. We prepared planned, reasons, presentation materials and helped with the strategies. On both counts it was a success. Itec expanded resources with our help, and the street got a much trimmed and much more carefully detailed development. It became clear that Placemark wasn't just about small building design. It was about shared co-creation. The process we employ is where our real strength is: Dedicating a set of objectives to the situation before helping bring about a satisfactory solution. With refining that process, we then helped a lot of owners and developers, small and large. And more than a handful first time developers too. Multi-residential units Then, someone wished to get more than just the plans to sell with the land. A situation developed where the owner of a larger block could accomodate three units. This gave us a new idea.. If they were able to sell one to the builder and as a result build one for free that would result in one of the units for just a fractional outlay. And that is what happened. Now, that was value adding to enjoy! For a member of the community to realisa a dream that was considered out of reach before. We were frequent guest for a tea or a cake until they retired to the coast. Something, I still think you could do too with a reputable builder/designer. Ideally, the formula should work, regardless of what's happening on the market. Getting the planning may take more time to consider and coordinate, but if you get it, then it is well worth it. And when you think about it, that additional value can be utilised in so many other ways too, including refinancing the property or putting it in your nest egg. Information modelling and web Now, when an established client wanted a complimentary service that, it turned out we were also able to provide, we added it as a new service to our regulars too --- if they wanted so. And that was 3D modelling. Then we decided to try and 3D model our documentation for some of other designs - mostly the larger ones. Gradually, those models began to hold more and more useful information. Sometimes they included building components, products and even billing quantities. For some projects the data even began to hold various climate and resource efficient measures. These activities involved investing some of my spare time. But was well worth it, because those models turned out to be useful --- and in more ways than one. Today, in addition to beeing a design studio with growing reputation, Placemark is also a well-respected building information modeller (BIM) in fields as diverse as construction innovation and sustainability assessment. Our profile an size of projects grew, but our overheads remained comparatively low. And this is because we have been working happily from a home based studio. Luckily, in the age of online communication - using email and our internet form and wiki based project hub that is very handy as well as confidential to all project members - our strategy has proven to be more than effective. Projects per region Information per category Other applied projects Pro-bono service |
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