This Week | Rapid Prototyping with Bethel Church of Crown Point

This week, Mantel Teter Architects and Bethel Church of Crown Point, Indiana were in our offices for a rapid prototyping exercise.

In 48 hours, we toured facilities, confirmed programming, then went through full schematic design as decisions were made interactively with the architect, client leadership, and acoustics, audio, video, lighting and staging designers for Acoustic Dimensions.

The real-time feedback of having all of the disciplines in the room at the same time allows the process to move much more quickly than traditional processes where much of the work is done by individual team members in their own offices. Not only that, but it also allows people to work in parallel process without misdirection as conflicts in design are revealed and resolved quickly.

While rapid prototyping of facilities is an intensive process, it can also be a lot of fun. Not only is there the energy of collaboration with a team of people working toward a common goal, but it is also satisfying to both client and design team to get to solid deliverables in a focused, concentrated amount of time.

Of course, you don't get through a process like this without some burning of midnight oil, and there was definite appreciation by all for espresso this morning after working so late into the evening morning.

Whenever we go through a rapid-prototyping exercise, we always ask the client for feedback on the process. Steve DeWitt--the senior pastor at Bethel--had the following input: "Overall I found the experience to be extremely positive. I’ve been involved in four major building projects and this was a first for me. I am very pleased with the product that we are taking home with us. It is remarkable what we were able to get done in essentially 48 hours."

Pastor Steve also had valuable input on scheduling and the information that we provide ahead of time which we will use to adapt and shape the process going forward.

This morning, when Craig Janssen stepped into the office, he paused for a moment and said, "I continue to be amazed by the people we work with."

(Sidebar: "Me too.)