Having been involved in a number of projects since 1980, and having an office established in Hong Kong for three-and-a-half years, this difference became very obvious.

In Hong Kong, the land value of the site mostly outstrips the construction costs so that architects, developers and building companies are extremely cautious about the utilisation of space.

For the services engineers and consultants, this means very careful utilisation of space for ducts and services so that an efficient floor plan is achieved. Plant and ducts are not included in the plot ratio but do impact on the general design efficiency.

The time taken in the design and documentation phase in my experience was far greater than in Australia; however, the construction time was much less, and this needs to be considered when determining fees and staffing costs for a project.

Consultants' meetings in the design phase can be very protracted, and on one major project, weekly meetings were held for more than a year before serious documentation commenced.

Another aspect affecting design is the volatility of the Hong Kong property market. This meant on one project in the New Territories area that a building initially designed as a medium height warehouse was changed, after full documentation up to tender stage, and redesigned to function as an industrial building and then changed again to become a commercial office building.

As the building codes in Hong Kong are of a very high standard, and particularly in relation to fire protection, changes to an existing design are not simple, and usually a complete redesign becomes necessary.

Changes of a complete design will require a renegotiation of fees, and fees in Hong Kong are very low in comparison to Australia, but the work involved and the level of documentation called for is very similar. Developers in particular expect a redesign fee to be much lower than the initial fee.

Language presented only minor difficulties during most design meetings with Architects, as practically every professional I dealt with was fluent in English; however, once the project was into construction, spoken and written Cantonese became essential so most foreign companies employed local engineers and consultants to process the construction phase. Even in the normal day-to-day functions of an office, local employees were indispensable.

Local Authorities' engineers, inspectors and senior staff also spoke fluent English and no difficulties were experienced in dealing with them either by phone or in writing.

As mentioned earlier, the local Codes and Regulations are of a high standard and are subject to very careful scrutiny by the Regulatory Authorities. I believe the checking process in Hong Kong is higher than in most Australian cities, and non approval of submissions not uncommon. Another item most foreign designers would not be aware of is the environmental considerations placed upon all new work.