No fee

We run through a few basics on the phone to understand your site, your budget and what you want to achieve. If we’re not the right architect for you, we’ll be able to tell you straight away.

To arrange an initial call, please fill in our Client Enquiry Form and we will take it from there.

A small fixed fee which you get back if we move to the next stage

We meet you on site (or virtually, if for some reason we can’t get together in person) so we can understand as much about you and your site as we can. We look at the potential, practicalities, and constraints.

This gives us everything we need to put together our Pre-Design report, which includes:

• a clear and detailed articulation of your brief
• a desktop summary of relevant planning constraints and history
• our initial thoughts around the budget and our initial assessment of how this might be broken down to a possible project timeline
• our detailed Fee Proposal setting out our deliverables and fees for each of the stages to come.

This early pre-design work is crucial, and our most successful designs have been in response to a clear understanding of our clients’ aspirations and needs, and a very particular set of site constraints.

Spending a few hours in each other’s company is also an opportunity to check we’re a good fit and that we care about the same things. After all, if we become your architect, we’re going to be spending quite a bit of time together.

It’s not until now, aware of all the constraints and with a full grasp of the brief and site history, that we start designing.

We look at different ways of designing everything from your brief and whether that’s attainable within your budget. A feasibility study is exactly that – a process of examining all the options to work out what might be possible, before jumping ahead to the next stage.
 
We develop a 3D ‘massing study’ which shows the various possibilities in different forms and different positions. We evaluate the impact of each in terms of the view, the sun and other buildings, all while keeping an eye on Planning and other constraints.

There’s never just one obvious solution, and the best design might not be the one we, or you, were expecting. Together we look closely at each option and measure it against your brief and your budget to ensure that if we have to decide on our priorities, the right compromises are being made.
  
We then develop your preferred design further, focusing on detailed layouts and 3D models to ensure the house will work perfectly for you and your family.

We start a conversation with the Planning department, to get their input and get them on board before the more pressurised public Planning process. We explain the design in their terms, show how it complies with policy, and give them the chance to appreciate it for what it is.

We bring on board any consultants we need for their specialist expertise – on flooding, bats or trees, for example.

With our water-tight process the Planning application should just be a formality. But we still smooth the process as best we can by speaking to neighbours and the parish council on your behalf, and by giving anyone who might be interested (or worried) a chance to see and fully understand your design before making up their minds.

We’ve got a brilliant track record in getting our applications through – 100% at the time of writing – and we have excellent relationships with Local Planning Authorities. We’re also particularly well versed in the sensitivities and guidance around protected sites such as Conservation Areas, Listed Buildings, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the Greenbelt.

Our approach is to ‘design first, build second’. With all the decisions made, right down to the taps and light bulbs, your project can be fully costed before starting on site, and that means you won’t be open to additional expenses and delays (which is why so many building projects veer off course).

The other significant upside of our approach is that contractors want to work with us because of the level of detail we provide – it allows them to deliver well-planned, accurately costed, delay-free projects to happy clients.

Equally, we have contractors we love working with – contractors who care as much about the quality and finish as we do – so when we draw up our tender shortlist with you, we’ll include them if at all possible.

Your role is simply to sit back, get on with your life and work, and watch our shared vision take shape. We’re your hands-on, diligent project manager, and we work closely with your contractor, administering the contract and keeping everything on track and on budget. Yes, we really do deal with everything for you.