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Skanska chooses White Design
Skanska Residential has completed an innovative competition to find partner architects to work on its future developments. White Design is delighted to be one of six architects on the final panel.
The first phase of the competition attracted submissions from over 30 practices and judged the firm’s compatibility with Skanska Residential. Five questions were asked to elicit values and company culture. All submissions were also asked to be anonymous, designed to eliminate potential bias from Skanska.
A second round, featuring six of the initial applicants, took place over several weeks and involved the firms collaborating with each other to develop a proposal and then role playing for Skanska to understand how designers interacted with a range of typical Skanska customers.
Jamie Wilding, development manager of Skanska Residential, said: “We wanted the architects to be creative and to show us what they stood for. Most of the architects liked the unexpected and creative approach to the competition. The six successful firms really listened to the customers and tailored their presentations to them. The whole idea is to design new homes for real people.”
White Design’s proposal was to examine a “day in the life” of four Skanska homeowners through storytelling. The customers were asked to choose their main areas of interest around 6 key themes: Home is Where the Heart Is; The Kitchen Table; A Place for Everything; A Time For Everything; Hide and Seek; and In Touch with Nature. Their responses to the stories were realised in ideas about spaces inside and outside the home and, ultimately, turned into designs that had a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable focus.
Magnus Andersson, president of Skanska Residential UK, said: “We think it’s important to listen first and find out what people need from a new home. We need to focus on better quality products, green solutions and to be recognised as a design focused developer. This is what the competition was all about, finding architects who had a similar ethos to us on customer benefits and who we could work with to deliver our vision.”
Matt Harrison, White Design’s lead Director for Business Development, commented “We really enjoyed the competition and are delighted to be working with Skanska Residential. Their process has ensured a good match between our culture and design ethos and theirs.”
