RIBA Work Stage 1 Preparation and Brief

The questions get a little more personal at this point, and if we haven’t met you already, we definitely want to meet you now – along with your partner/family/dog/colleagues/customers (depending on the project, obviously).

You can draw up a wish-list as long as you like and tell us all about your must-haves, nice-to-haves, and most-definitely-nots. We soak it all up and still want to know more.

We explore your site. If it’s your existing house and garden, we investigate every nook, cranny and irritating detail. If the site is a muddy field, we’re just as interested – pacing up and down in our wellies, breathing in the air, absorbing our surroundings, and working out where the sun rises and where it sets. 

We bounce ideas around with you, and throw out some figures too. What might be possible? How much is it likely to cost? How long might it take? Together we agree on a way forward and begin to hatch a plan.

It's still all 'big picture' at this point, so now's not the time for thinking about where you want your USB sockets or the perfect finish for your taps (we promise their time will come). And we're certainly not asking you for fully formed ideas, which, in any case, would cut out so much of the fun.

We lead the conversation, with plenty of questions up our sleeves, a good dose of natural curiosity, and pen and paper ready to capture the merest hint of an interesting idea. There's absolutely no need to turn up with a clear idea of what you want to say, but please do turn up ready to think, imagine and even dream.

Oh, and one more thing: we help you commission a 'measured survey' which gives us the millimetre-perfect plans we need to be able to get on with being creative. We suggest a surveyor, explain the process (and the cost), and then on the day you just need to let them in. We will also identify any other consultants or surveys you might need.

RIBA Work Stage 2 Concept Design

We love this stage, and you will too. We start sketching furiously and giving shape – on screen and on paper – to the ideas we’ve discussed. 

On the one hand we’re drawing on our experience of every project we’ve worked on. On the other, we’re leaving all that behind and coming at your project completely fresh, thinking far outside of any box and focusing entirely on you.

We feel our way around different concepts with 2D drawings, 3D drawings and cardboard models, and all of these conjure up our vision for you. We may make use of a virtual reality headset too, just to be sure you’re fully in the picture. We think about how the spaces will feel, put together mood boards, and even come up with ideas for furniture.

Right now, everything’s more than a little rough around the edges and very much up for discussion (and there’ll be a lot of that). But your positive, enthusiastic reactions at this point are usually enough to tell us we’re hitting the right notes and firmly on the right track.

It’s not all mood boards and slicing up bits of cardboard, though. We think about time and cost issues, about sustainability, and about health and safety. If we need to test the water with the local Planning department, we do that too.

RIBA Work Stage 3 Spatial Coordination - Part 1 (3A)

Getting everything ready for planning is an exciting time – for us and for you. The rough sketches we’ve assembled so far need to start doing some real heavy lifting, so we get our heads down and drill down to the detail, making sure everything is as functional as it is beautiful. And we might bring a planning consultant on board for that extra bit of expertise, especially if it's a particularly sensitive site.

It’s also the moment to make sure we’ve got anything extra the planners might need – an application for listed building consent or a bat survey, for example – and to put together the Design and Access Statement. That’s the most important document of all, and while it might not sound inspiring, it does need to inspire confidence in the planners and show that we’ve looked at your project from every angle.

But it’s not just the planners who are on our minds. We need to think about your neighbours too. We’ll give you everything you need to talk them through our plans, and we’ll happily answer any questions or worries they might have. Anything to get us off to a good start.

RIBA Work Stage 3 Spatial Coordination - Part 2 (3B)

Once your planning application is as perfect as it'll ever be, we click 'Submit' and breathe a collective sigh of relief.

But while this might signal a chance for you to get on with life and put your focus back on other things, we're still very much on duty.

We're keeping all lines of communication open – working with the planning consultant (if we've brought one on board), picking up on any questions or concerns the planners might have, smoothing out any wrinkles, and doing whatever we can to get your application over the line.

RIBA Work Stage 4 Technical Design - Part 1 (4A)

With planning approval now sorted, we pull together all the technical information, coordinate the specialist input from consultants, and assemble a ‘tender package’, both for the Architecture and the Interior Architecture*. You can think of this as a very thorough instruction manual, and it gives a builder everything they need to know to price up and then build your project. It has all the specifications for materials, all the technical drawings, and a ‘schedule of works’, which is basically a long and very detailed to-do list for the project.

*We see this as part and parcel of what we do, deserving of the same rigour and attention, but we know some clients can’t wait to tackle this on their own or have an interior designer already in mind – in which case please let us know now!

Architecture

This is about the bones and skin of the building – the foundations, roof, walls and everything else you need to keep you warm in winter, cool in summer, and dry and comfortable all year round. It’s also about creating a strong and resilient building, so with our help and guidance you appoint a structural engineer and a party wall surveyor (only if needed, of course).

Interior architecture

A well-insulated and watertight house is still not a home, so we turn our minds (and yours) to floor finishes, paint colours, kitchens, bathrooms, built- in joinery and lighting, to ensure everything comes together perfectly.

By nailing all of these things now, we avoid unexpected costs, unforeseen delays and other not-so-pleasant surprises during the build.

The technical drawings, along with quite a bit of explanatory detail, also go to Building Control, who’ll be keeping an eye on building works. If the Planning department has specified certain conditions, we bring these into the equation too.

RIBA Work Stage 4 Technical Design - Part 2 (4B)

We send out the tender package to a shortlist of potential builders so that they can understand exactly what’s involved and give us an accurate price. 

Once we’ve got the quotes back, we go through them together with you, weighing each one against the others. But picking a favourite isn’t all about price. We like to work with people we trust, people who care about doing a beautiful job. Our weighing-up process takes all that into account too.

Then we prepare a building contract for you and your chosen builder to sign.

RIBA Work Stage 5 Construction

At last we’re on site. We keep a close eye on the contract and on what’s happening, making sure everyone – and everything – is on the same page. We check on progress and on quality, keep track of cost, oversee health and safety, and certify payments to the builder.

We give you regular updates from site, explaining what’s going on in frequent progress meetings, and through written reports, photographs and impromptu conversations.

We’re your ‘contract administrators’ as well as your architect, and you can think of us as the go-between, answering questions from all sides and keeping everyone moving in the same direction.

We can’t promise that real life won’t throw up the odd problem, but we can promise that we’ll jump to attention with the first hint of something unforeseen. We’re here to shoulder the stress, keep the big picture in mind and ensure that every element is true to the design.

When the builder gets to the end of the schedule of works, with everything ticked off to our satisfaction, we give you a ‘practical completion’ certificate. The builder, meanwhile, gets sign-off from Building Control.

Then the builder moves out and you move in.

RIBA Work Stage 6 Handover and Close out

You’re in, but for a year or so it’s not unusual for the odd thing to need sorting or fine-tuning – snagging, as it’s known. We’re still here for you, and we work with the builder to resolve any loose ends. 

Once those loose ends are dealt with we issue a final certificate, which is another step on from the earlier ‘practical completion’ certificate. Now you can pay the builder’s last invoice and sit back, safe in the knowledge that everything’s just as it should be.

RIBA Work Stage 7 In use

It’s time for you to get on with the business of enjoying what we’ve created together. 

But don’t forget us. We hope you’ll invite us over some time for dinner or even cocktails. We’d love to see your new spaces in action and hear you talk about anything – or everything – you particularly love about them.

And because we’re as geeky as we are creative and sociable, we’ll evaluate your building’s performance. Doing that helps us understand the impact of our work, keeps us learning, and means we can check your building is keeping you warm and comfortable, just as we’d planned.