Commercial
We have extensive experience in the delivery of non-domestic projects.
Communication with the client and design team leadership are key, and our value-driven approach ensures that clients can make auditable decisions to reduce budget risks early and ensure that their projects are delivered within the agreed project-specific constraints.
Design
We deliver non-domestic projects in a variety of procurement scenarios. Working in a range of sectors, we work on the design and build of both new build and existing and historic buildings.
Communication is key to the successful delivery of their projects, and we are experienced and skilled in obtaining relevant briefing information from our clients and their stakeholders. We establish a detailed brief with our clients at the outset, identifying key drivers such as construction cost, programme, and other project specific constraints and aspirations, providing a benchmark against which the success of the project can be measured.
Our approach is value-driven, and cost management is central to our design philosophy. We have experience with innovative approaches to cost estimating, risk management and whole life costing, allowing budget risks to be quantified at the earliest stages. Assessing and prioritising of project risk according to cost impact helps clients structure their expenditure and achieve an acceptable level of cost certainty at each stage.
We can carry out assessment studies for complex projects identifying specific project constraints, stakeholder requirements and project risks. We collaborate with whole life cost consultants to quantify cost benefits of different design solutions over our clients’ preferred investment horizon even before design work has begun, to avoid abortive work and maximise client value.
All our projects are designed to be as environmentally sustainable as possible. We will prioritise strategies that reduce construction costs before considering those that minimise running and maintenance costs to meet and exceed building regulation requirements cost-effectively.
Statutory Consents
Statutory consents, particularly planning permission, are frequently a key concern for our clients. Through our skill and experience, we can advise clients on an appropriate strategy to obtain planning permission, listed building consent and building warrants.
On smaller projects, we typically provide Construction and Design Management Co-ordinator services to help contractors deliver.
Consultants
We advise clients on the scope of services of other consultants, as required by the complexity of the project, to keep costs to a minimum while providing an appropriate level of service.
We can assemble project teams and take on other consultants as sub-consultants to provide a ‘one-stop service’ to our clients.
Construction
We regularly advise our clients on contractor selection based on the priorities defined in the project brief. In working with contractors, we adopt a collaborative, co- operative approach and identify construction defects through regular site visits to reduce the risk of remedial work and delay.
We have experience in traditionally procured projects and can also work for contractors in design and build projects and deliver a full range of architectural services or partial services, as required by our clients. We provide effective team leadership and our systematic approach to communication ensures that projects are delivered within time and budget, to our clients’ satisfaction.
Architectural design and services installations will be fully designed and priced in detail by the tenderers, to give little room for costs variations during construction. We minimise wet trades and avoid components with long lead-in times, incorporating modern methods of construction including pre-fabrication where appropriate to reduce construction periods to a minimum.
Post-Completion
Our committment to our customers goes far beyond the contruction of a project.
We are committed to providing products and services, which meet the customers’ specified contractual requirements and maintain consistently high quality through a Quality Management System (QMS) in accordance with the requirements specified in BS EN ISO 9001:2000.
Continual improvement is one of our core business values.
After completion, we review our experience with our clients to learn lessons for future projects. We are actively engaged in research and education and deliver community benefits through work experience and traineeships within our practice.