The desire to find a better approach to custom built homes led Mike Costa, co-founder of Destination Living, to where he is today. Mike, along with his partner Grace Patane, founded the Melbourne-based company in 2010. Their goal was to “bring the world of architecture and building together as one,” says Mike. They didn’t believe so much in the traditional custom build methodology. They were looking for a better way of approaching it. Their solution was to create a business that was design-led rather than construction-led. “We’ve created the ultimate business model for single, owner-occupied structures,” Mike says. If a client is looking for their forever home and striving to get their best possible design-and-build outcome, that falls into Destination Living’s key area of skill and ability. “A large element of that is understanding who the most skilled people are,” says Mike. “Designing and building is a team effort. In the beginning, I looked at who were the most skilled people, and I put together a framework to have the highest level of skilled people at each of those design points.” This system works well for their niche. Conventional custom building is more production based and less personal, says Mike. “Traditionally, you have multiple people managing the project throughout the process and as each phase passes, the person managing that phase pulls away from the project. With our way of approaching it, we have a person managing it from beginning to end so it’s a much more personalized program to deliver, with more consistency.” The ultimate benefit of Destination Living’s process is a satisfied customer. “They get a great product they love, and they feel they were part of the process as directors and creators,” says Mike. “Our system is more for people that understand what we do. We get that marriage, and the outcome is very good because we’re good at what we do. It’s a testament to the skill of our THE CONSTRUCTION SOURCE AUSTRALIA
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