29 July 2021
The AWiCS-Unispace Webinar,an inaugural event under the AWiCS’ Mentorship Programme 2021, attractedclose to 50 attendees.
Three speakers from Unispace brought attendees on a case-study walk through of their recently completed project to illustrate how Unispace’s team worked during the pandemic to successfully deliver to client’s satisfaction. The project was to redesign Boston Scientific’s office in Singapore, to enable greater connectivity and collaboration for their on- site, remote and hybrid workers. It began in May 2020 with a planning period of 4.5 months followed by a 10-week construction period.
The first speaker, Ms Lee Pui Kheng, said that the long planning (pre- construction) stage upfront ensured that variation needed during the construction stage could be minimized. This in turn translated to cost- savingsfor the client and on-time delivery.
The second speaker, Ms Suang Ng, who was the Project Lead, elaborated on how the team used insightsprovided by the client to inform the strategy and translate into design that would meet their currentand future needs.As the client’s global workplace survey found that almost 50% of their workforce expressed preference to work from home at least 3 times per week in the post-COVID era (compared to just 13% pre-COVID), the agile-work design of the office space would be one that provides more for socialand collaboration needs of hybridand remote employees as a good part of focus-work and learning activities move online.
Ms Alfie Hsieh, who was the ProjectManager then sharedthat early and constant engagement with both client and vendor were key to providingseamless delivery experience. As construction had to take place during the pandemic, extensive and strictsite health and safety measures were implemented to minimize risks of stop-work orders and any COVID casesoccurring among the workers. The use of 3D video capture of job site providing real-time visualization of work progress for the client was not only for conflict resolution as part of constant engagement, but also helped to minimize travelling and reduce risk during such times.