Sam (Issam) Leika-Shukor, Senior design architect & Certified Passive House Designer - CPHD

‍^{How Savvy Residential Developers & RE Investors Think of A Good Design?}

Did you know that for developers and long-term RE investors, a good design is not specifically related to initial cost?!So, what is it related to then,

*How can design optimizes running costs of buildings? That's on top of developers and RE investors' mind too!*

you might ask, if not immediately to construction costs? Its actually related to operating costs.

This is not my claim. I learned it from several residential and commercial developer-clients, confirmed by many facility managers who supervise any retrofit or major renovations.

What this means is that choosing "cheap" materials, fixtures, equipment, or finishes may sound like a reasonable (definately favorable) decision to reduce the project budget. But without considering the operating performance of these materials or methods of installation, this becomes a falacy.

Operating costs over the years can easily surpasses the initial costs and cause a big financial leak (not only energy leaks). As a practicing architect, I seek a critical balance between 3 elements of design; site planning, sourcing of materials and spec, and obviously construction budget.

*Facility managers imderstand the impact of operational costs!*

Only critical balance can help achieve REAL building efficiency.In this video, which I'm repurposing to the concept of what "a good design means for savvy developers", I point out to the mistakes that architects often make during the schematic phase. For example, creating amenity green roofs can definately increase initial costs.

However, it can also reduce overall operation costs through minimizing thermal loads during winter (the latter can be false if maintenance costs of the green amenity roof surpasses the energy saving, so, detailing is crucial or as they say the devil is in the detail...).

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