A note before you read it
The manifesto below was written in Q1 2019, and thought through in the years leading up to that point, on construction sites and in design, procurement and progress meetings. It is published with nothing removed and nothing improved. Where the grammar obstructs the sense I have corrected it in square brackets, so every correction is visible. A tidied document is not evidence of anything. A dated one is.
Three things are worth knowing before reading it.
It names no company. There was no company. The only act of naming in it is a role: a Development Integration Manager, the seat it calls the most critical in the whole method, accountable for holding design, manufacture, cost and delivery together. In 2019 that role was not an established market appointment and had no standard industry name.
It knows some things and not others, and the record should be exact. By the time it was written I had read Mark Farmer's Modernise or Die, and had come through the design and procurement of Quintain's build-to-rent pipeline at Wembley. Of regulation it says nothing, because I was not following the regulatory work of the period. Some of the industry reviews this corpus draws on elsewhere I had read as part of my degree, Egan and Latham among them, though I was no scholar of them. The manifesto did not descend from that literature. It walked into it.
Its language is 2019's. It reaches for utopia, calls for disruption, gauges synergies, aims beyond mediocracy, a misspelling I have left standing, and sniggers at petty challenges. A younger man's swagger, not how the work speaks now, and printed whole anyway, because the honesty of how it was written sits underneath everything since.
I grew up seeing what a home gives to the people who have one, and what its absence takes from the people who do not. That is as much biography as this argument needs.
It was written as an invitation. It is republished as one.
Johan Liebenberg
August 2026
What, Why, How · Johan Liebenberg, 2019
The text below is reproduced from the original manifesto. Nothing has been removed and nothing has been improved. Grammatical corrections appear in square brackets so that every one of them is visible. Everything else, including the misspellings and the period vocabulary, is as written.
What are we trying to achieve?
Our aim is to expedite the advances in construction technology, rooted in efficient design. From the way buildings are designed, the way they're procured and built, and most importantly, how buildings are occupied and interacted with, in a social and environmental sense, but also on a personal level.
We are starting with a blank canvas when it comes to property development. We are putting design back at the centre of building houses, big or small, by acknowledging emerging technologies' impact on how houses are designed and built and the potential that resides in optimising this with carefully considered design. Design = planning.
We position ourselves at the forefront of the rapid evolution of construction technologies and play a part in the movement that redefines inspiring architecture.
Never before have we had the ability to stress-test designs to the level of accuracy we can today, using software and hardware technologies, to eliminate risk to less than ever before, if carefully planned. This allows us to be braver.
Consider this in terms of technical design development, in 3D, 4D and beyond, to be able to communicate concepts, and incorporating this into current capabilities of manufacturers to propel them forward; to be able to enhance the construction process.
Off-site manufacturing for on-site assembly allows more accuracy and therefore less waste and improved programme that is the sum of less cost; and the most critical role in the success of this, is the Development Integration Manager, acting as lead [design] manager. No longer will cost managers stifle creativity before it gets its wings. No longer will deeply engrained methodologies limit how far we allow our imagination to [wander]. We drive the ability to think beyond constraints as a collective.
But we will always stay true to what we value in a home – to deliver inspiring living spaces that we feel healthier and happier for spending time in.
So, what we are doing is approaching residential development with a new lens. We are striving to be a platform to push the supply chain to do better by facilitating the difficulties with a solution mindset. We set out to achieve.
We start with a concept that strives for the utopia and we get into the nuts and bolts with the most suitable delivery partners / specialists (precast manufacturers / timber frame specialists / system manufacturers e.g. windows, roofing etc. etc. etc.)
We gradually massage and adapt the design and manufacturing technologies to ensure the most efficient way to deliver ground-breaking and industry disruptive design, with the future in mind.
That is what we do. We do.
Let's be brave together.
Why are we doing it?
A home is something that we all need. But it has evolved so far beyond basic needs.
Having a home that you're proud of has become a privilege and we aim to make this privilege the norm.
In the first instance we want to prove what is possible with collaboration instead of competition, and how everyone in the value chain can benefit from project involvement.
We are on a quest to make desirable architecture and a desirable home accessible to everyone. But we need the entire value chain to play a part in the success story.
So why are we doing it? To build relationships that enable progress and accessibility in residential development.
Because we are grateful for the progress that has been made over centuries of providing one [of] the most basic needs; to provide shelter.
We stand on the shoulder[s] of giants, striving to be pioneers and the bedrock for the evolution of construction.
To make it more efficient, and a better experience for everyone. And to bring architecture back to what created it in the first instance; people's basic needs. We are doing it, because people expect us to.
How are we doing it? (Manufacturing Principles)
In the first instance we need to agree on some basic principles to allow progress.
Our interpretation of how this design evolution could look has been set out in the following categories (Stages / Phases / etc.), which we propose to follow as a roadmap in our quest to be disrupters.
- Concept; basic principles
- Feasibility & Viability
- Proof of Concept
- Technical design development
- Refinement & Negotiation
- Implementation
- Use
- Repeat
Taking this thinking further;
Concept; basic principles
With our industry know-how and understanding of conceptual design we start by setting out the desired objectives of a development. We then re-imagine this with the consideration of emerging technologies and what they could do, not what they are currently doing. We imagine and reimagine what is feasible within the constraints – cultural, commercial, time – the real challenges. Not the petty challenges. We snigger at those. We work up a sketch proposal of what we would like and we engage with partners to gauge synergies and identify those that share our vision and [buy] into our philosophies. We then evolve our concept and stretch their capabilities to achieve more than just mediocracy.
Feasibility & Viability
Once we have identified the conceptual solution we stress test the design by categorising the design and drilling into individual aspects of the design to ensure the concept is feasible, and viable. We examine supply chain options and their viability in a creative and innovative way.
We package elements of the design for supplier engagement and start to identify technical feasibility of each element at conceptual stage, identify interfaces, with a focus on critical interfaces and adapt the design, and evolve manufacturing technologies to arrive at an enhanced delivery solution compared to conventional methods.
Proof of Concept
This is where we validate everything we have done to date and set ourselves up to go into delivery mode. We dive deeper into the detail; technical, commercial and organisational cultures and their interdependencies.
We spend a little bit more money on what should now be a viable concept and prove it by stress testing the critical elements of the development. This is scheduled into easily digestible formats using graphic form wherever possible.
We have technically focused workshops that crystallise costs, timescales and capabilities and opportunities.
We define the required resources to deliver the project, and we finalise the delivery interfaces and scope within each package to ensure that we have left no stone unturned and that we get ourselves as comfortable as we can, to ensure that we can successfully deliver the project as we intended to. But we never assume that we will, until we have.
Technical design development
At this point we have identified any constraints and obstacles and have either eliminated them or identified strategies to overcome them and quantified all the associated costs. We have identified and developed a relationship with our delivery partners.
They are fully versed [in] what is expected of them; their works, roles and responsibilities are clearly set out and cost attributed to it, and they fully buy into the philosophy. We further validate delivery in terms of technical design, detailed coordination and documentation of the project development into a well-built asset, that all parties are comfortable to deliver.
We use this technical design development to define procurement strategy and contract structure and finalise the virtual aspect of the project, to such an extent that we enable the final stage prior to implementing the delivery – final negotiations and risk scheduling that [leave] behind key decisions to allow the project to progress into full scale production.
Refinement & Negotiation
We now have a fully-fledged design, identified the supply chain and the procurement strategy, detailed scope, validated costs and programme, with draft contractual arrangements in place for us to have [joined] up discussions of the contractual relationship of all parties with one another – as we are all in this together. Then, to conclude this stage, once all the individual discussions [have] been had, as necessary, we get everyone together and shake hands on how we are going to deliver the project. From [here on] in, we should have everyone signed up and be working like a well-oiled machine to deliver the vision. At this point, we have thought about everything that we can and have a team in place that can deal with any challenge that is thrown at us.
Implementation
Providing we have done everything in the preceding stages to the best of our ability, this should be a formality and a process of watching our hard work come to fruition.
Any challenges that arise will be able to be dealt with swiftly and efficiently due to the extensive planning that has been done, and the detailed involvement of the whole value chain – to ensure that there is very little, if any variation to what we set out to achieve in the conceptual stage.
Use
As we develop the design we should identify measurables that will help indicate how successful the project was. We can then measure it as the project matures.
This should be documented in as structured a manner as possible, that is easily digestible and absorbed into the next project.
A system should be developed to systematically and periodically review developments upon completion, and for this assessment to be distilled into future projects and considered in the wider context of ever evolving technologies and capabilities, to ensure ongoing improvement and a closed loop process.
Repeat
Our work is never done. We aim at getting better every time we take on a new project, armed with the experience of the previous project, constantly improving.