22 RETIREMENT LIVING PROJECT REPORT


apartment types, but there are some variations here. That meant modular really wasn’t the best solution.” He also says that at only 52 apartments, the development didn’t provide the scale required to make modular viable for Birchgrove: “When you’ve got a larger scale then modular makes more sense,” but adds, notwithstanding this, “you can still get some quite good buying power from suppliers at our scale.”


SUBCONTRACTORS


Birchgrove does not directly employ a building workforce, but chooses contractors as needed, and is not in any long term formal partnerships. Beresford says the company uses a design guide for the interiors, which covers the quality of kitchens, bathrooms, and size of amenity space contractors need to follow. This includes a restaurant, a lounge, libraries, and a small gym, “but this is not an identikit design that you can pick up and build anywhere,” says Beresford. He adds that “we really believe in outdoor spaces.”


He continues: “Planning obviously dictates the kind of massing that you can have on a site. The visual appearance of the facade needs to respond to the local


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vernacular as well and work with the town and the setting that you’re in.” While the developer uses size guides to dictate the amenities’ look and feel to a degree, he adds they “like to have some local context so we respond to where we build, and adapt it slightly.” He adds that while “you’ll see some similarities in the fi rms developments, there are defi nitely some differences in terms of visual appearance, both internally and externally.” Contractors are appointed partly on having the right attitude towards Birchgrove’s approach rather than simply on price, says the development director. Beresford comments: “You can make some very bad decisions if you just go on price. We want to work with like-minded and forward thinking dynamic contractors that want to work with us on the projects and not just deliver and say ‘see you later’.” He adds: “We want to build relationships with a small pool of main contractors and consultants.”


LONG-TERM APPROACH


Building accommodation for rent means that – unlike a conventional developer – Birchgrove cannot simply fi nish a ob and walk away. It has to offer long-term


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