About | Adelaide SA

Introducing LAB OOS

A lab per definition is a place for doing scientific research or tests, to produce solutions or products, often of an innovative nature.

We love to design

True to the definition of a lab, we do 'research' first and only then revert to 'produce' a design solution based on the research's outcome. This approach has proven itself over and over again, as we have successfully designed various innovative projects since 1999 - e.g. houses (including additions, alterations and renovations) group housing, apartments, hotels, community halls, clubhouses, churches, schools and museums - to name a few.

Our innovative building designs are often complimented or even enhanced by fitting it out with innovative fittings or furniture to match. At LAB OOS we have identified this symbiotic relationship and therefore also design or choose products specifically for your building.

Services

Below is a brief introduction of LAB OOS services, with typical FAQ’s.

Pre-design

Assessments of existing buildings

(Must I renovate or detonate?)

Preparation of feasibility studies

(What will it all cost, and how long will it take?)

Site selection

(Can I build on this site, and what will council allow?)

Preparation of ‘as built’ drawings of existing buildings

(Can you draw up plans of the existing buildings on my site?)

Design

Preparation of design sketch plans

(Can you do a design according to my exact needs and desires?)

Preparation of council approval drawings

(Can you draw up plans to get council approval?)

Preparation of working drawings and specifications

(Can you draw up plans to build with?)

Master planning

(Can you draw up plans that will also show future buildings and structures?)

Project administration

Obtaining council approval

(Could you obtain council approval?)

Obtaining tenders

(Could you get a quote or tender based on the plans?)

Site inspections during construction

(Do you inspect the build to determine if the contractor builds according to the approved plans and specifications?)

Project administration during construction

(Do you process progress payments to the contractor as well as administer the build according to the contract?)

Project management

(I do not have a main contractor, but only sub-contractors, would you manage them on my behalf?)

Fees

Fees are determined for each project according to the project’s requirements and merits - and will be invoiced either as a percentage of the construction cost, a lump sum or an hourly tariff.

Please contact Nicolaas for a detail fee assessment of your project based on the following options:

Fees as a percentage of the construction cost

This fee structure is the most popular as it is adaptable.

Often the actual cost of the build is not known in the early stages of a project when the fee must be determined - making an adaptable fee structure desirable for all parties concerned.

This fee is payable in stages as the project progresses.

Fees as a fixed lump sum

This option is the second most popular fee structure as the fees are fixed.

When a project is small or uncomplicated and the scope of the work is thus easy to determine - a fixed lump sum fee structure is usually used.

This fee is also payable in stages as the project progresses.

Fees determined on an hourly tariff

In some circumstances when only specific work is required – an hourly tariff is charged.

This fee is also payable in stages as the project progresses.

Introducing Nicolaas Oosthuizen

Career summary

Nicolaas Oosthuizen studied architecture at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

After graduating in 1991 he started work at Jacques Botha Architects Inc. in Pretoria, where he worked for 7 years as a junior architect.

In 1999 he started his own architectural practice in Pretoria, namely OOS Architects Inc., where he worked for 8 years as a senior architect.

In late 2007 he and his family moved to Adelaide in Australia where he lived and worked at LAB OOS, a Design and Research firm until 2017.

At the end of 2017 he made a decision to start teaching architecture. Accordingly, until February 2019 he was a lecturer in architecture at Waikato Institute of Technology in New Zealand.

He currently works at LAB OOS in Adelaide and lectures at the University of South Australia.

Project experience

Residential:

Houses (including additions, alterations and renovations), group housing, apartments, hotels

Commercial:

Shops (including restaurants), shopping centers, offices, ware-houses, factories

Institutional:

Community halls, clubhouses, churches, hospital, museum

Other:

Casino, mortuary, airport

Skills & Expertise

Lecturer

Senior architect

Project management

Office management

Asset management

Product design

Architectural and product evaluation

Architectural research and writing

Architectural models

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Architecture, University of Pretoria, South Africa

1991 (5 year course, equivalent to current M. Arch)

Career timeline

University of South Australia

Lecturer (Building - Property School)

June 2019 - Present

Waikato Institute of Technology

Lecturer (Architecture - Built Environment School)

2018 – February 2019 (1 year)

LAB OOS

Principal

February 2019 - present

2008 - 2017 (10 years)

O.O.S Architects Inc.

Senior architect

1999 - 2007 (8 years)

Jacques Botha Architects Inc.

Junior architect

1992 - 1999 (7 years)

Organizations

Warrina Homes, Adelaide (Old age care)

Director - Board of Directors

2010 - 2012 (3 years)

Warrina Homes, Adelaide (Old age care)

Chairperson - Development Committee

Chairing their asset portfolio of $ 44 000 000 namely 100 homes, 80 high care facilities and head office

2010 - 2012 (3 years)

SA Council for the Architectural Profession

Professional architect

1997 - 2007 (11 years)

Courses

AutoCAD Release 12 2D ACAD
Revit 2017 Essential Training
Sketch Up 2018 Essential Training
Broadband Workshop Adelaide Hills Council
Professional Development for Architects SAIA
Entry exam SA Council for Architects

Publications

PROD

A game to improve the architectural mind

Buildings of Doors

From theory to practice

The Three-dimensional Architect

Conversations about architects and dimensions

The Four-eyed Architect

Conversations about architects and perception

Reflections on Energy

Essays about energy

Languages

English

Professional proficiency

Afrikaans

Professional proficiency

Personal

Married to Karien, parents of Magdalena and Johannes

Interests

Animals, fast cars and good music

Introducing my surname

I am often asked how one pronounces my surname, which can be a mouthful.

I thought the attached article which appeared in the The New York Times explain this dilemma best!

The New York Times

You Say Tomato, I Say Oosthuizen

By Richard Sandomir

April 9, 2012 7:21pm

Spelling Louis Oosthuizen’s out-of-Afrikaans surname is easier than figuring out how to pronounce it.

In a 2011 commercial for Ping, the South African-born Oosthuizen said: “There are two names on my bag. One, nobody can pronounce, even after I won the British Open Championship. The other is Ping, which does no damage to the tongue.”

In the ad, he pronounced his name as “Oo-est-hayzen”, with the first two syllables blending together quickly. But then Louis (pronounced “Loo-ie” as in Carnesecca) confuses us. In a video made earlier this year for Ping and Golf Monthly, he said, “Hi, I’m Louis Oosthuizen.” But this time, his name rolled out of his mouth in another way: “West-hayzen”.

What in the name of the CBS golf analyst Peter Oosterhuis is going on here?

If Oosthuizen himself shifts between pronunciations, then CBS Sports can’t be faulted for doing the same thing during the Masters on Sunday when Oosthuizen led for a while but lost in a two-hole playoff to Bubba Watson.

The CBS announcers called him “Oost-hyzen” and “Oost-hayzen”. They had no such problem with “Watson” or “Bubba”.

Now here’s the head-scratching part of this mystery. There are three legitimate ways to say Oosthuizen, according to his representatives at International Sports Management.

There is “Oo-est-hayzen” (which can also be “Oo-erst-hayzen”). There is “West-hayzen”, and there is “Oost-hayzen”.

David Feherty, CBS’s Irish-born golf analyst who had a home in South Africa during his first marriage, described the sound he uses to pronounce Oosthuizen as “oo-eh”. And if you say it quickly enough, it can sound like a “w”, and thus, “West-hayzen”.

And, he added, someone with an Australian accent, like the CBS golf reporter Ian Baker-Finch, might be thinking of pronouncing Oosthuizen’s second and third syllable as “hayzen, but will say it “hyzen”. The language maven in Feherty said that the last syllable in Oosterhuis’s name, which is Dutch and is usually pronounced “house”, should properly be said, “hase”.

A good explanation for the various ways to say Oosthuizen comes from Jack Wainer, a real estate title agent from South Africa who speaks Afrikaans. “’West-hayzen’ is the way that South Africans would say the name”, he said. Wainer, a naturalized American citizen who lives in Long Isalnd, said that “Oo-est-hayzen” accurately reflects the name’s Afrikaans roots. And he added: “Americanized, it’s ‘Oost-hayzen’. A lot of South African names are tough for Americans to pronounce.”

Oh, to be a South African golfer named Ernie Els.