Solaire is one of the biggest and most prestigious of its kind in South East Asia. Designed by Steelman Partners (USA) with an unprecedented level of luxury in the Philippines.
The main approved specification for all public reception areas and VIP suites was Calacatta marble from Italy. Our company was one of the principle sources and we supplied it in the form of cut to size (bespoke) and slabs.
Our service began at the very early stage of this project. Firstly, we provided photos of the material and samples to the client for initial approval and to explain the nature of this material, its natural variation and characteristics. This is a key element of any such discussion. We find that setting the client expectation correctly at the early stage of any project helps align the vision of all stakeholders. Secondly, we prepared a mock-up in Italy at our Carrara warehouse facility. Here, we had a display of the raw blocks from the quarry, in addition to a range of the slabs. This was a deeper step to explaining the nature of the material, documenting client’s comments, and finally agreeing on an acceptable variation range (parameters). By the end of this stage, we had our material and specifications approved and we were ready for production.
Next, we communicate with the quarry and secure the supply of the blocks, and we start the production process. The VIP suites were supplied entirely in cut to size (bespoke) format. Hence, all crates were labeled, each with the suite no, sizes, and qty, all which corresponded to the approved architectural drawings. The contractor at the site only had to follow the same version of drawings we referred to during production, in order to allocate each crate/material to the correct location for installation.
At every stage of production, we had a consistent reporting process to the client which included photos of the material being produced alongside the control samples, to demonstrate that the supplied product is conforming with the agreed spec. We also had regular visits to the project site to gage progress and document first-hand the client feedback and accordingly took necessary action if needed.
Solaire was a successful project, and it became a major reference for our company in the Philippines market. We consequently supplied multiple 5-stars projects in Manila.
