Kickstart Design Consultation
We don’t design just a house. Together with you, we create a bespoke home.
Where to start?
Building a new home or expanding a much-loved one is a truly collaborative endeavour that spans many months.
One of the most important decisions you must make is who you appoint as your architect. You must find someone experienced whom you feel you can build a collaborative and trusting relationship with.
To help give you some insight, you can learn more about us, how we started as a practice, the team, and our culture, approach to service and architecture here.
Below, we’ve tried to provide some short answers to the most frequent questions we receive. We hope this helps to give you a starting point. If what you’ve seen on our website resonates with you, please consider booking your Kickstart Consultation.
We're a purposely small practice, which means we have a limited capacity to take on new projects each year. We want to ensure we can assist you without any disappointment, so the sooner we connect, the better chance we have of being able to offer help.
FAQs
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We are committed to helping our clients on their projects and delivering the highest quality of professional service.
As a multi-staffed architectural practice, we are resourced and best suited to schemes with construction costs starting from £100-150k and above.
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At this early stage there are many factors still to be consider before an accurate figure can be calculated. That said, an initial figure for a typical project starts at approximately £2,500m2. (inc VAT) for construction only.
This doesn't include professional fees, any work on your existing property or site, internal re-configuration, fitting-out or landscaping, amongst many other things; these must all be considered and budgeted.
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We price on a project-by-project basis. We will provide you with a bespoke fee proposal as part of your 'Kickstart' Design Consultation report.
Our initial Kickstart Design Consultation is £150 (inc VAT)
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Planning is a key area we cover in detail during your initial Kickstart Design Consultation.
But, in short - Yes, you will probably need planning consent or a Lawful Development Certificate if you want to:
● Build something new
● Make a major change to your building, such as adding a large extension.
● Change the use of your building.
What are Permitted Development rights?
A certain scale and type of works can be carried out under permitted development rights; these do not require planning permission.
Whilst some developments are clear, the permitted development rights guidance is a significant document with many areas open to interpretation.
For certainty, we always recommend submitting for a Lawful Development Certificate (LDC).
What is a Lawful Development Certificate?
An LDC is applied to and issued by your local council. On approval, a certificate of lawful development confirms that the proposed works do not require planning permission.
An LDC is not a replacement for planning permission.
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We are a purposefully small practice offering a genuinely bespoke service; as such, our project lead-in times do vary depending on our current workload.
We aim to schedule initial 'kickstart' design consultations at the first mutually suitable time we can; these are typically arranged within a few weeks of your enquiry.
So we can clearly see your property/site during our meeting. We find it best to keep our consultations to daylight hours.
Kickstart: Feasibility & Design Consultation
Rather than jumping in at the deep end, we suggest a pre-appointment Kickstart Consultation. It will help give you a real sense of how we work without any obligation to appoint us.
As a paid consultation, it also gives us both the appropriate length of time to talk through, consider and address your initial queries; no question is too big or too small.
Our clients find this stage of our process immensely valuable. They appreciate our refreshing and professional approach to our first meeting: by prioritising time to actively listen to their needs and guiding them through this crucial stage. As a feasibility and design consultation, It has also saved time and money by identifying potential project-stopping issues early on in the process.
A Kickstart Consultation typically follows the following format:
01: Pre-Meeting
Before our initial meeting, we'll send you a helpful pre-meeting information pack. This aims to introduce you to our unique design process and provide more insights into commissioning an architect and starting a building project.
02: Personalised Meeting at Your Home or Onsite
During our meeting, we'll take the time to truly listen to your needs, aspirations, and dreams. We'll discuss your aesthetic preferences, likes, and dislikes to establish some initial design principles. We'll also start to explore the ramifications of planning: what may be appropriate and feasible for your project. Additionally, we'll consider your budget and desired timescale, as these are essential aspects of the consultation.
03: Feasibility & Design Report
We want you to know that our commitment to you doesn't end with the meeting. We understand that there will be a lot to process afterwards. To help summarise what we discussed, we'll create a bespoke feasibility and design report. This report will outline what we covered about your project's potential feasibility and visually explore some initial ideas through sketch plans. These plans will illustrate what we could possibly achieve together. Additionally, we will present a fee proposal and outline the next step should you wish to move forward.
Our Kickstart Consultation was created to help give potential clients the very best start we can: but without any obligation to appoint us.
Next step:
Book your Kickstart Design Consultation
To allow us to provide you with the best possible service, we charge a nominal fee of £150 (inc VAT) for our Kickstart Consultation.