Integrated cooperation for better quality
The Gruno neighbourhood in Groningen shows how the integration of strategy, urban planning, architecture and engineering results in efficient construction and high-quality housing.
Urban planner Jeroen de Willigen and architect Erik Roerdink, both partners at De Zwarte Hond, advocate for this new way of working and improved collaboration in a new article by Vastgoedjournaal.nl. The projects in the Gruno neighbourhood are exemplary of the benefits this approach brings.
Jeroen says: “We have been working on a large-scale urban renewal plan there for a few years now and have learned that if you really pay attention to the way the various parties work together and also devise processes for this, you achieve better results. This requires a time investment in the beginning, but it has a big pay-off over the course of the process.”
Instead of a linear approach in which the architect makes a design and then a contractor is sought, contractor Trebbe was involved in the design process for the Gruno neighbourhood from the very beginning. Erik explains that this approach allowed us to respond better to the contractor’s specific construction system and we could then exploit that as much as possible. “It ensured, firstly, that we didn’t have to remove inefficiencies from the process afterwards. And secondly, that we were able to make the most of Trebbe’s construction system, which allowed us to invest more in the quality of the end result.”
Our ambition is to realise more projects through this kind of collaborative process in the future. In our eyes, such integrality only benefits quality.
Read the full article here.