Services

Clarity before commitment. Before significant time or capital is committed to a site, we help you understand what it can realistically deliver — its constraints, its opportunities, and the value it can return. Our appraisals draw together planning context, site analysis and indicative design options, so you can move forward, or walk away, with confidence.

We offer this as a fixed-fee Development Appraisal for clients considering a purchase, or as a fuller Feasibility Assessment for sites already in hand, where we test design options, yield and route to planning in more depth.

Detailed, design-driven architecture across all sectors. We work with clients from concept through to construction, or on individual stages of the process where that suits the project better. Our team draws on experience of high-value schemes in London and Manchester, and we bring that rigour and ambition to every commission, regardless of scale.

Sustainable design is integral to our approach. We are well-versed in low-energy and fabric-first principles, and we look to embed these from the earliest design stages rather than treat them as a later overlay.

Our work with listed and historic buildings, and within conservation areas, is led by Michael Chou, a RIBA-accredited Conservation Architect. We give clients confidence on sensitive, heritage-constrained projects.

The accreditation reflects rigorous assessment of specialist experience and conservation expertise, meaning a deeper understanding of historic fabric, sensitive materials, and the consents process, including working closely with conservation officers and heritage bodies. It shapes how we approach every heritage project, balancing respect for a building's character with the practical needs of modern use.

That experience includes work on the Imperial War Museum and the Grade II* listed Express Building in Manchester.

Our current heritage portfolio includes Ushaw Historic House and Gardens, a multi-listed heritage complex including Grade I and Grade II* buildings, in County Durham; and Kiplin Hall, a Grade I listed Jacobean country house in North Yorkshire.

Masterplanning is strategic work. Before any single building is designed, it sets the framework everything else follows — and that starts with being clear about what the place itself has to achieve. We establish those objectives with you, then test options against them: how people move through the site, where density belongs, what the public realm has to do, and how the parts add up.

Working alongside engineers, landscape designers and transport consultants, we hold the overview while the specialists work in depth, so the scheme stays coherent as it develops. Our experience spans residential-led schemes, mixed-use sites and public realm, and in each the measure is the same — whether the result builds a better community, not simply more units. Commercial yield and quality of place are not in opposition; a place people want to be in is what makes the numbers hold up over time.

At Kingsway Square in Bishop Auckland, that meant taking a brownfield site of derelict buildings and making a green public space of it, with a children's play route woven into the walk from the high street. At Westpark Garden Village in Darlington, it meant building the masterplan around an ancient hedgerow running through the site — keeping it as an ecological asset and making it the spine of a walking and cycling route through the neighbourhood.

Interior architecture — the next level of detail development, for projects that demand a high standard of technical or aesthetic finish. Where the architecture sets the envelope, this is the work that resolves how it is inhabited: junctions, materials, lighting and fitted elements, considered down to the last detail and drawn to the same standard as the building itself.

That runs from the highly technical to the purely beautiful. At Pennine Veterinary Referrals it meant planning a specialist veterinary interior around an MRI suite, in a new building where the clinical requirements set the plan and patients, owners and clinical teams move through without crossing paths. At The Lake House it meant the opposite discipline — floor-to-ceiling glazing, living spaces gathered around a private courtyard, and the transition from inside to terrace and pool handled as one continuous move.

We help clients edit the options, refine the brief, and arrive at spaces that are characterful, practical, and built around how they will actually be used — from family homes to serviced apartments, bars and restaurants. Where the project calls for it, we extend our involvement into bespoke joinery, staircases and furniture, so the architecture and interior read as a single coherent piece of work.

We act as Principal Designer under both the CDM 2015 Regulations and the Building Regulations. Under CDM we lead the coordination of health and safety through the pre-construction phase; under the Building Regulations we plan, manage and monitor the design work so that the building, as designed, meets the requirements. Our role is to identify and design out risk before it reaches site, support smoother delivery during construction, and discharge our clients' statutory duties with care. The intent is straightforward: safer buildings that are quicker and easier to build.

We take the appointment itself, and the legal responsibility that comes with it. This is worth checking when you compare offers: some consultancies act only as adviser to the Principal Designer, which leaves the duties — and the liability — sitting with the client.