Keeping the project moving without a final design
Working with an unfinished design under extreme uncertainty
Project view
The situation
By December 2023, the brand´s final design was still not approved, and there was no clear indication of when it would be issued. At the same time, the project was expected to move into construction as soon as the design was ready. There was no realistic option to simply wait and move the opening several months later. I had to make the most of the information available, despite having very little certainty about what the final design would look like.
The problem
The engineering packages depended on the brand´s design and architecture. Waiting for the approved design meant that engineering would only start once the final design arrived — with no certainty about when that would happen. That could have left only a very short window before construction and potentially pushed the entire programme.
What I identified
In December 2023, I started developing the engineering packages based on the unapproved Bvlgari design available at the time. I treated this as a working basis rather than a final solution, developing as much as possible while keeping the packages flexible enough to absorb changes. When the final Bvlgari design was finally issued on 15 February 2024, it included changes affecting the façade and consequently HVAC, electrical and fire-safety solutions. Because the engineering work was already underway, these changes could be incorporated into the existing packages rather than starting from zero.
What I did
The final design was issued on 15 February 2024. Construction started on 1 March 2024.
The outcome
By starting the engineering work two months earlier, while the design was still unresolved, I was able to turn an extremely ambiguous situation into a workable delivery process — and preserve the planned construction start despite the late final design.