Working for Contractors and Developers
Our Office has been delivering high quality commercial and residential developments in partnership with Developers, Contractors and House Builders for over forty five years.
We understand the need to deliver high quality places to live, work and rest, in well planned grounds, with appropriate vehicular and pedestrian accesses. Our Office also understands the need to deliver developments that are based on sound and commercial returns on investment.
As Contractor-Developer Clients, we know you want higher quality, less risk, and high value for money. We know that you expect more from your Architects, and other members of the team, and – in this respect – we work hard to deliver on your expectations.
Creativity and Problem-Solving
Our early involvement in projects can enable the injection of creativity, using our problem-solving skills to your advantage. We can develop designs that allowing our Clients to differentiate themselves in an increasing difficult and competitive market. Our skillset, and experience, allows us to extend these skills beyond technical and aesthetic issues.
We understand the need to apply these skills against a cost budget, and we know how to use our experience to identify cost savings, improve construction and energy efficiency, and assist with the smooth flow of production information, all leading to improved buildability.
Listening and understanding
Our experience tells us that Contractor-Developers are driven by key commercial matters, such as build-ability, programme, risk management, cost-efficiency, ease of maintenance, and ultimately, commercial viability. However, each Client is different, and hence we always wish to listen and understand our Clients’ commercial drivers, so that we can then respond to them proactively, working smarter to optimise our service and the designs.
Cultural shift and leadership
Times have changed, the complexity and sophistication of construction projects have changed and intensified, and the dynamics of the design and construction teams have changed. A full design team will add considerable value to the project, and we enjoy working with our industry colleagues in this respect, working hard to dissolve traditional hierarchies, and build collaborative, coordinated teams.
Our service to Clients is therefore viewed as a shared responsibility, with our Office leading the team. Team structures are largely “flat”, rather than hierarchical, and we look to exploit the team-building benefits, investing in long-term relationships. We are proactive, and enjoy leading the design process to from inception to delivery.
Design management
We consider ourselves to be creative designers and strong on detail design. Such work however, takes time and due diligence, and cannot be rushed or fast-tracked. We enjoy working for Contractor-Developer Clients who value our skill-sets, and offer us time and incentive to pay close attention to the project from inception, through to Practical Completion, and in use. We can fulfil the role of design management in this respect, coordinating the design team for delivery against our Client’s brief.
We aspire to offer a commercial offer that is competitive, includes for support and guidance through project delivery, and work to avoid the need for Clients to engage or use in-house design managers, reducing repetition and duplicate costs.
Collaboration and communication
Given the increased technical complexity and sophistication of contemporary construction, we have evolved our traditional practices to ensure that we can coordinate the design process, communicate openly and welcome interdisciplinary collaboration with supply chains, not only to avoid costly errors, but also to add extraordinary value, that respects our Clients’ key drivers.
