ABSTRACT
Building construction is a curious industry for a range of reasons. Industries are roughly divided between ‘manufacturing’ and ‘services.’ Manufacturing is where people make something, then try to sell it – like refrigerators or steak knives. Services is where people do something for someone – like tax returns or root canal operations. The stereotyped opposite of this is the architect designed project. The client approaches the architect directly and explains their aspirations. The client may be an individual but also a corporate entity. The architect listens, muses and transforms these into a design that will materialize the client’s ambitions. Risks in construction projects are different and arguably even less programmatic. A market is international when it requires foreign participation in order to be fully serviced, and a firm is international when its value proposition cannot be fully matched by domestic counterparts. It is about as isolated from the rest of the world as is possible in the 21st century.
