Architectural Design Process

It’s important for us to understand what it is your aiming to achieve and it is then our job to determine how best to deliver it. Therefore, the first stage of the architectural design process is a free on-site initial consultation, allowing us to get a feel for the project and discuss your options going forward. So please, get in touch and we can help turn your ideas into reality. 

Once we have discussed the feasibility of your project, we will carry out a measured survey and draw up the existing plans. Not only are the existing drawings a requirement for obtaining planning permission but this also gives us the foundation to start developing design solutions to suit your brief. Understanding the existing property and getting a feel for what currently stands on the site is important when producing a design that will not only compliment it but enhance it. 

This is where your project is nurtured and a preliminary design based on your initial brief is drawn up. Analysis of the site and our architectural design knowledge come together to acquire a proposal that reflects your brief. These designs are presented to yourself and any tweaks and finishing touches applied before submitting with a planning application. If your proposal falls within permitted development, the planning stage can be skipped, and we can proceed with the working drawings needed for Building Regulations Approval.

The finalised drawings and associated documents are then put together by us to compliment the planning application that we submit to the local authority for approval. A four week consultation period then commences, where your neighbours will be notified of your proposed work, followed by a four week decision process by the local authority planning department who after 8 weeks will decide on your application. We work closely with the planners throughout this process to give the proposal the best chance of obtaining an approval. 

Building Regulations approval is different to that of planning permission. Building Regulations are not concerned with the aesthetics, but how it is built. They help ensure that all new buildings, conversions, renovations and extensions are going to be safe, healthy and high performing. To do this, we produce a full working drawing, that is detailed, to ensure your proposal conforms to current Building Regulations standards and a full Building Regulations sign off certificate is received. 

Here we can pass the project over to you and your selected contractor to start the build. We are however, always on the end of the phone to answer any questions or queries you may have. Or for those that wish to take a back seat and watch their project unfold, we offer on site supervision, giving you piece of mind that your project is progressing as it should.