You!

There is no project without you. We design to your brief and we aim to get the most out of your budget.

There are a range of ways we can work with you, depending on your experience and what you bring to the project:

• • • We can provide a straight forward architectural design service producing and preparing drawings of your project
    • we can challenge and add to your brief, identifying opportunities or uncovering risks
    • we can manage and co-ordinate the work of other consultants and the commissioning of supplementary studies
    • we can provide strategic advice on costs and on possible timescales.
    • We can provide the role of Principal Designer to assist the completion of your responsibilities under the Health and Safety Regulations
    • we can provide a full architectural service from beginning to end. We are committed to ensuring our designs are successful when they are lived in!

Your Clients or Customers 

You may not live in, work in or experience the buildings you are developing. We therefore need to fully understand who the client is/are e.g. staff and students in a school, tenants in homes, guests in a hotel, visitors to an attraction or indeed your family!

The ultimate success of any project is judged by the building users. The future sustainability of a project is underpinned by how well the outcomes for the project have been achieved. These outcomes will include timely completion and budgetary aims, as well as qualitative measures such as:

• • • Is a child’s educational attainment increased?
    • Does the internal space celebrate a connection with the outside?
    • Does the use of natural light improve a sense of wellbeing and reduce energy use?
    • Do tenants feel safe and secure?

We will identify who these people are with you, at the beginning of the project. We will work with you to ensure their voices are heard, opportunities are identified and expectations are managed, and where possible, exceeded where they can be aligned with all the project outcomes.

The Place

Design has the opportunity to add to, enhance and better connect a place. This can aid community well-being through the considered approach to context, as well as increase an individuals sense and spirit of place within an area.

The process of design can leave a legacy of inclusion and ownership, especially where change may be of a scale that requires community involvement. Equally, the place could be a room and it’s connection to the woodland view beyond or enhanced by the celebration of materiality and light.

We will always begin a project with you by understanding the value of the context, to add to both your project and the location in which it sits. This will involve unearthing “the story” for any project, however big or small, that will provide the connecting thread throughout the design and construction processes and when the building or space is lived in.

For us PLACE is about people and space.

The Planet

We also design for the planet.

We have a responsibility to design creatively around the resources that we have and we are passionate about doing so. We integrate sustainable design opportunities with the aim to promote sustainable lifestyles through the buildings and environments we create.

We have worked in the development of sustainable design for many years. Our experience includes:

• • • Understanding designing for future climate
    • Understanding materials and their impacts i.e how to minimise waste through design, low embodied carbon materials and opportunities for promoting a circular economy.
    • Championing low energy design – How can we reduce the energy we need? How can we reduce the energy we use? How can we use renewable energy for the rest.

The adoption of fabric first, efficient design is the starting point, combined with the appropriate use of technology and simple systems that will allow people to use their environment efficiently.

We have regularly designed to Passivhaus and BREEAM standards. We acknowledge that these approaches require effective collaboration with others to share information at the right time, allowing the best decisions for the most sustainable outcomes to made.

Understanding Your Budget

We work with you to understand your budget. We aim to align design intent and aspirations with the budget. We will use free resources, such as light, orientation and views, to help generate beautiful and interesting internal spaces, as well as engaging public spaces that help promote ‘place’.

It is important to understand the risks and challenges of any site, before beginning the design process, as these may add to the cost of a project before any design works has begun. For example: Is it a sloping site? Are there any buried pipes and cables? Is the site in a Conservation Area and are there Listed Buildings present?

Us

We also design for ourselves! We are bottom of this list, but we want to enjoy the work we create with you. Our approach is guided by a desire for mutual respect and trust.

We believe each process and project is unique and created by both the people and site that it engages. If we can create and add value, whilst reducing our environmental footprint, then we have been successful; if we can make new friends or establish new relationships along the way, then even better!