Build your vision.
Borrow our expertise.

If you haven't worked with us before, we'll set up an introduction meeting. You'll get a feel for who we are, how we work, and what to expect once the project starts. This will be the beginning of a fruitful partnership.

The integrated design process is a way to smoothly work together. At the start of the design process, key members of the project team, including the owner, architect, planner, users, operators, construction team, landscape architects, engineers, and community members, comes up with and changes project goals and a high level roadmap.

The "deep green" attitude of the integrated design approach enables us to marry your sustainability goals with the design intent. All while keeping an eye on the buildability or practicality of the solutions that are brought forward.

The outcome?

The project team gets to bring to life the most healthy, comfortable, and energy-efficient structure that can be built. This mix of knowledge, open discussion, and a specific but flexible goal encourages people to think outside the box, which often leads to new ideas.

An important first step in any high-performance project is to study the site we're working with. Study its micro-climate, study its surroundings, and study the people who live, work or play there.

This place-based approach to building allows us to deeply connect your design to its surroundings. Which then leads to passive design strategies that work well with the climate and give people a sense of connection to the local environment.

Building orientation, shading, natural ventilation, and rainwater collecting are all taught through the study of vernacular architecture.

These fundamental concepts are frequently used as a foundation for passive design. Which is then improved using the most up-to-date scientific approaches to the thermal envelope, passive ventilation, daylight harvesting, and water reuse.

We analyse how sophisticated technologies might be utilised in inventive and practical ways after utilising appropriate passive techniques.

Then we'll identify active systems that satisfy your project's needs for low energy and water consumption, as well as energy generation through renewables.

This is where we put our building science hats on.

We use simulation analysis to test and verify that the design decisions you make are based on reliable, quantifiable outcomes. When planning our structure, we begin with computer simulations to determine the best orientation for maximising natural light and ventilation while minimising energy consumption.

Want even more granular details?

Our solutions and systems thinking strategies are suited to the project as we use more relevant tools such as energy, lifecycle, and carbon estimates.

Once we have the preliminary results, we'll discuss them with you in detail and help you understand what the results mean from a practical perspective.

You'll get an overview of what the risks and opportunities are, and what strategies bring the biggest impact.

This is an iterative step—more of a dialogue than a speech.

Until we settle on the most desired project outcome.

An integral part of every project is how it is managed.

By breaking down the project into distinct phases, you'll know what's happening and what's coming next.

If peace of mind is what you seek, we can offer you ongoing support through to project completion.

Open communication channels (via email, phone, and text) also give you a way to stay in the loop at all times.

Green Star, LEED, NABERS, the Living Building Challenge, WELL, Passivhaus, and many other certification programmes help clients and building professionals show that their projects are some of the best in the market.

These programmes recognise sustainable design and construction in projects all over the world.

They are good because they have third-party verification, which is a way to make sure that the building works the way it was supposed to.

Makao has vast experience and success with many different certification programmes and platforms. You can, therefore, borrow our experience to build your vision.