Most building services problems are not design errors in one discipline. They are interface failures between disciplines. Underscore Projects provides MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) services design management for architects, developers, head contractors and asset owners in Sydney and across New South Wales. We lead the coordination of the mechanical, electrical, fire, hydraulic and civil packages so they are designed to one brief, one programme and one set of spatial constraints, and arrive at tender as a consistent whole.
Our design management role sets the services brief and the design responsibility matrix at the outset. Where the client does not already have specialist services consultants, we recommend and coordinate them, then run the MEP coordination between them through each stage of design. We manage the interfaces that generate variations on site: plantroom and riser allocation, ceiling space, structural penetrations, authority connections, the fire safety schedule and the cause-and-effect between fire, mechanical and electrical systems. At each stage, design reviews check the packages against each other, against the architecture and structure, and against the cost plan. We report to the client on scope, risk and programme in terms a project manager can act on.
What distinguishes our approach is the team running it, with decades of combined experience delivering services on tier-one construction sites. We know which coordination issues become claims. We resolve them in design, where they cost a drawing revision, rather than on site, where they cost a variation. MEP services design management is offered as a lead consultant role for the full services package, or as a services coordination role alongside the client’s existing consultants.