Conversation
Half an hour, no charge, no obligation. We establish whether the project is one we can do well and whether we are the right people for it.
Approach
Architecture is mostly a sequence of decisions taken in the right order. This is the order we take them in.
ProcessFive stages
Each stage ends with something you can hold and a decision you can take. You can stop at the end of any of them.
Feasibility
Two to four weeks. Survey, constraints, and two or three genuinely different options with honest cost ranges attached to each.
Design
Six to twelve weeks. We develop the chosen option in drawings and physical models, and take it through planning.
Technical
The drawings a builder can price and build from, coordinated with the engineer and any other consultants the job needs.
On site
We visit regularly, answer the questions that always arise, and inspect the work. A director stays on the project to the end.
Fees, plainly
Feasibility is a fixed fee, agreed before we start, and typically sits between £2,000 and £6,000 depending on the size and difficulty of the site.
Beyond that we usually work on a percentage of construction cost, in the range most chartered practices charge. On smaller or unusually shaped projects a fixed fee or a time charge can suit better, and we will say which we think is fairer.
Whatever the basis, you get it in writing before any work begins, and you will never receive an invoice for something we did not discuss first.
What we ask of you
A real budget, said out loud early. Almost every project that goes wrong does so because the budget was a wish rather than a number.
Time to look properly. We will ask you to visit buildings, handle materials and sit with drawings. It is the cheapest possible moment to change your mind.
Honesty about what you actually want, including the parts that sound unreasonable. Those are usually the most useful thing you can tell us.