The clue is in the name of the practice. We address every project we work on in a truly collaborative manner. That means working closely with the client and a professional team all knowledgeable in their fields. We respect each other and what we all add to the process. That’s what leads to a successful outcome as we are all striving for one goal. That goal is to provide the best design that we can which suits the client’s needs, and which achieves something exceptional or outstanding. Design is the watchword, and we are focused on that. We pick and choose the projects that we take on and don’t just play to the crowd that all schemes have the essence to achieve something exceptional.

As directors of a team, we have over 30 years of experience each working on award winning and groundbreaking projects all over the world from infrastructure to leisure and residential schemes. At present we have infrastructure and commercial schemes on our desks and are continuing to enjoy and develop our paragraph 84e exceptional one-off houses all over the country.

Its an architectural students dream to be given an open ended brief to design something exceptional for a piece of land especially if the site is challenging. Fortunately, we have been “students” all of our lives and continue to get excited about what people bring to us and ask us to create for them. Its always as surprise what emerges as we collaborate not only as a team but with the environment we see around us. We work closely with ecologists, engineers and sustainability experts as well as some great landscape architects to bring the best out of the site we are given.

No 2 sites are the same and the design that emerges is often a surprise to the client and has to relive themselves of the conventional notion of what a house is. In occupying it they come to love it and enjoy it in ways that we can only imagine.

That energy and excitement is brought to all of our schemes.

We design schemes to be noticed and enjoyed and which can stimulate others. Its best to have a scheme that’s talked about rather than one which is bland and unnoticed.

Each scheme is unique to its site. We approach each by working closely with our client and the team which is assembled. As each site has its own constraints and opportunities each response is different, and we do not apply a hose style. You will see from the images of some of our schemes that each directly evolved from the clients brief and the site.

We have 18 consented/approved paragraph 84e projects in all and continue to work on others at all stages. You will see a variety of schemes from traditional architecture to modernist and organic architecture. Very often the inspiration is taken from the site itself and occasionally from a strong client brief. Several have been constructed or are currently on site and one scheme at Blackdown Hills in Devon has appeared on grand Designs.

Projects are located all over the country from Northumberland to Devon and from Suffolk to Shropshire. The team that is put together will depend upon the site and its characteristics. We also normally work with specialist ecologists and sustainability experts. We don’t just use the building to achieve a consent but look holistically at the project as a whole. We bring in sustainability experience, not just on energy, but also developing schemes which are carbon negative and sequester carbon into the future.

We also have found that working with a visualiser from the start of a project helps the design to evolve naturally. We work with a particular visualiser who is able to construct very accurate models of the surrounding landscape which are used to aid design and explain the scheme to others. The model is accurate enough to allow an observer to view the scheme in context from any part of the surrounding landscape and allows realistic visuals from within a building. A very valuable design tool.

Collaborative is a team.

Original Article on Architecture Vogue

Intro to Collaborative Architecture

Fibonacci House