Not many people can drive around Melbourne’s CBD and see “about a dozen” towering buildings they have helped design.
Ryman Healthcare’s new construction design team leader Andrew Moulding is one of the few who can lay claim, quite literally, to shaping the city’s skyline.
Having climbed the ranks from architect to senior associate in a leading Melbourne architecture practice, he amassed strong experience in the education, mixed-use and residential design sectors.
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“For eleven years my bread and butter was in the multi-residential sector, so I’ve done a lot of apartment buildings,” he says.
So why the shift to the aged care sector, one may wonder?
“I think it’s the opportunity to see things through, not just finish the design process and hand over a set of drawings.
“Here there is a feedback loop, we get it from the construction team, the operations team, and ultimately, we get it from the residents too,” Andrew says.
Since starting at Ryman five months ago, Andrew is now one of five new Melbourne-based construction design team members, adding to the established capability of the Auckland and Christchurch-based construction design team, which now totals 36 members.
One of Ryman’s drawcards was the wealth of expertise that comes from keeping things in-house.
“We’ve got in house quantity surveyors, builders, concept designers, interior designers, visual designers, that’s before mentioning the expertise of the marketing, sales, and operations staff; just to name a few.
“There is so much knowledge… It is really cool to be part of that.”
Andrew’s team have hit the ground running, collaborating with their Christchurch construction design team colleagues as they work on a fourth building at Nellie Melba Retirement Village at Brandon Park; the third and final building at Burwood East village; refurbishment projects at both Weary Dunlop and Nellie Melba village centres; and the new Highett village.
This is enabling the new Melbourne construction design team to upskill and “learn the Ryman way”.
A successful building must be considered, restrained and functional, Andrew says.
But, ultimately, a Ryman village is only successful if it gets the tick of approval from the residents for whom it needs to be not a building, but a home.
“The experience of the occupants has got be front of mind, and of course that comes back to that core Ryman question, ‘is it good enough for mum?’"
