Our Services

We work with you to

• Verify the objectives and priorities of the project.

• Ensure space, time and budget parameters are aligned with the client’s vision and aspirations.

• Ensure expectations are reasonable and attainable.

• Clarify client roles and the project structure.

• Establish how much you know already and your level of experience; do you already have a clear brief?

• Gather user and contextual information.

• Establish the building uses, life spans and flexibility requirements

• In this phase we will carry out a gap analysis to establish the strategy for; Conservation, Cost, Fire Safety, Health and Safety, Inclusive Design, Planning, Plan for Use, Procurement, Sustainability

Inputs from the client

• Business plan and justification

• Desired occupation date

• Site information, surveys, appraisals

• User engagement workshops, surveys

• Local authority, utilities, heritage, environmental input and planning constraints

• Brand, design guidelines, process maps

• Lifespan + asset management

• Benchmarking

Technical information to be reviewed

• Structural strategy (columns and gridlines to be adopted, special loads, floor-to-ceiling heights).

• Servicing requirements, including specialist requirements.

• Comfort conditions and level of user control.

• Acoustic requirements.

• Equipment requirements.

• Specialist requirements for furniture, finishes, fixtures and fittings.

• Information and communications technology (ICT) requirements.

• Requirements for specialist processes and plant.

• Fire compartments.

• Maintenance and cleaning requirements.

• Likelihood of future change (for example, staff numbers) and flexibility required.

• Sustainability objectives and energy use targets.

• Safety and security requirements.

• Resilience to potential hazards or threats.

• Waste and water management.

• Pollution control.

• Flexibility and future uses.

• Durability and lifespan.

• Other performance requirements

Appointing the right team is critical to the project

• Once the client brief is collected it makes it much easier to select the right consultants

• The right project management structure can be included and schedules of service and scopes of work created

• Where the brief remains ambiguous day rates against deliverables can be used to control cost and ensure that the right information is collected to create project execution plan [PEP]

• We can choose between direct appointment of know specialists using benchmarks against cost, or to go through the normal tender process (i) expression of interest / PQQ (ii) design competition (iii) tender deliverables against resource schedule

Standard contract forms to work through and choose

• RIBA Standard Agreement for the Appointment of an Architect / Consultant.

• ACA Standard Form of Agreement for the Appointment of an Architect..

• RICS Standard Form of Consultant's Appointment.

• B103 - Appointment of a Structural Engineer.

• B100 - Appointment of Professional Consultant.

• NEC Professional Services Contract.

• CIC conditions of contract for the appointment of consultants.

• ACE Agreements.

• JCT Pre-construction services agreement.

• JCT Consultancy agreement.

Typical requests for proposals

• A strategic brief, describing the client's assumptions, aspirations, budget and programme.

• A management structure for the organisation of the project.

• The scope of services required.

• Guidance on how fees should be quoted and broken down against stages of the project.

• A description of the form of appointment and conditions of engagement (such as step-in rights and the level of professional indemnity insurance required).

• Employer's information requirements (BIM).

• A request for references.

• A request for hourly rates to be applied to any work outside the proposed scope of services.

• A request for identification of any sub-consultants the consultant intends to use.

Once the appointments are made a master plan can be developed and executed

• High level design

• Identify Project Outcomes and Client Requirements in relation to inclusive design.

• Undertake an access and inclusion audit of the existing site or environment to identify any Project Risks which may affect the delivery of the Client Requirements for inclusive design.

• Identify relevant current and emerging global, European, national and local inclusive design-related trends, policy and legislation.

• Define whether any specialist inclusive design expertise is needed in the client team.

Planning

• Undertake a strategic planning appraisal of the site and its immediate and wider context, identifying the planning policy context, site designations, site history, an existing building’s listed or scheduled status and related Project Risks which may affect the acceptability and viability of the Client Requirements including high level Spatial Requirements to Project Stakeholders including the planning authority and statutory consultees.

• Review Feedback from previous Planning history (i.e. any previous applications, refusals and approvals).

• Define whether any specialist planning expertise is needed in the client team to provide strategic advice on planning considerations.

Plan for use

• Explore opportunities for links to other projects or programmes to achieve economies of scale and improve efficiency, and review the implications for the scope of the Client Requirements and the Business Case.

• Review opportunities and Project Risks associated with potential future changes of use, operating hours and specific user or tenant requirements that might affect in-use performance.

• Review Feedback from previous or similar projects or the existing asset.

• Integrate operation, maintenance and whole life cost considerations into both the Client Requirements and the Business Case.

Sustainability

• Develop high level, measurable, ambitious and unambiguous project Sustainability Outcomes to define the Client Requirements, following initial consultation with internal Project Stakeholders.

• Undertake a Site Appraisal of sustainability opportunities and constraints of potential sites and building assets.

• Identify relevant current and emerging global, European, national and local sustainability-related policy and legislation.

• Review relevant Post Occupancy Evaluation Feedback from previous projects (e.g. energy use).

• Review whether development is necessary to deliver the Client Requirements as one of the Business Case options considered.

Once the master plan is developed a program can be created

• The client team and the design team are the key players in this stage, along with any specialist consultants, whose contributions are required to achieve an Architectural Concept that is both robust and aligned with the Project Brief. Under some procurement routes, the construction team may also be engaged in this stage

• The crucial consideration at this stage is to determine which tasks and Project Strategies will contribute to the development of the Architectural Concept. The extent and nature of the tasks to be undertaken, and who should undertake them, will vary from project to project and from client to client.

• Obtain pre-application Planning Advice on the suitability of the initial proposal from a planning adviser or the relevant planning department.

• Consult Project Stakeholders and use Design Reviews (as appropriate to the scale, complexity and sensitivity of the program) to seek comments on the Architectural Concept proposals, including the impacts on immediate neighbours, the local context and environment.

• Iterate the Architectural Concept proposals to accommodate inputs from specialist consultants (e.g. transport/highways consultant, ecologist, archaeologist).

• Draft a design and access statement (if required), and assess possible section 106 contributions and community infrastructure levy requirements.

• Option: Submit an outline Planning Application to establish whether the scale and nature of the proposed development would be acceptable to the local planning authority before a fully detailed proposal is put forward.

• We do this in detail, but create short summary statements in plain, simple language to update you on the overall strategy, cost assumptions, timeline, key milestones and expected risks so you can take a strategic view and ask questions where more detail is required

• Review the Architectural Concept against end-user, operation and maintenance building performance requirements and whole-life costs.

• Align the Plan for Use Strategy with the Sustainability Strategy, Cost Plan, metering, site waste and other Project Strategies.

Spatial and infrastructure co-ordination

• This is fundamentally about testing and validating the Architectural Concept, to make sure that the architectural and engineering information prepared is Spatially Coordinated before the detailed information required to manufacture and construct the building is erected.

• Detailed Design Studies and Engineering Analysis are undertaken to ratify the assumptions made and to layer more detail onto the design. This is not about adjusting the Architectural Concept, which should remain substantially unaltered, although detailed design or engineering tasks may require adjustments to make sure that the building is Spatially Coordinated. Changes to the Architectural Concept, for whatever reason, should be agreed via the Change Control Procedure.

• Design Studies should be aligned to Cost Exercises and the development of the Outline Specification – iterations of the design may be required to ensure the Cost Plan aligns with the Project Budget. Product suppliers and specialist subcontractors might be consulted to test or conclude specific aspects of the design. A Spatially Coordinated design allows each designer, including specialist subcontractors, to finalise their information (except for minor tweaks at interfaces) without further major iterations of the design.

• The Project Strategies need to be updated and additional detail added, and a Building Regulations review undertaken. A Design Programme is created to make sure that the right tasks are undertaken at the right time. At the end of Stage 3, once the client has signed off a Stage Report that captures all the design development work undertaken during the stage, a Planning Application can be submitted.

• NOTE: When a Planning Application before the end of RIBA Stage 3 is being considered, it is important to set a mid-stage gateway and focus on the tasks necessary to ensure that the threshold of information required for an application is achieved, and that the design is robust enough for development once planning consent has been obtained.

• NOTE: On some projects, Employer’s Requirements might be issued at the end of RIBA Stage 3 rather than in Stage 4. This documentation may require some elements of the design to be drawn to a higher level of detail, or require schedules or detailed specifications to be produced, to help remove risk from the procurement process and set the Quality Aspirations. This is a drawdown from Stage 4 activity, and might

Once the appointments, master plan and program works are completed an execution plan can be developed to take the scheme forwards

• The execution plan may be for one or all phases of the scheme

• A project execution plan (PEP, sometimes referred to as a 'project management plan') sets out the strategy for managing the project.

• It describes who does what and how, defining the policies, procedures and priorities that will be adopted. It may include strategies in relation to items outside of the scope of the main contract, as the client's overall project might include multiple contracts for the supply of goods and services, both from external organisations and from within the client organisation itself, such as operation and maintenance contracts, the supply of equipment, relocation, and so on.

• Project execution plans are generally prepared by the client's project director if they have sufficient experience, or on their behalf by a project manager. On a construction management contract or a management contract they may then be taken on and developed by the construction manager or management contractor.

• We do this in detail, but create short summary statements in plain, simple language to update you on the overall strategy, cost assumptions, timeline, key milestones and expected risks so you can take a strategic view and ask questions where more detail is required

Typical details to be worked in

• Project definition and a summary of the strategic brief or later the project brief.

• Drawings insofar as they are developed at this stage.

• Project programme.

• Cost plan, cost management and accounting procedures.

• Contracting and procurement strategy.

• Roles, responsibilities and authorities. This might be set out in a responsibility matrix (or project roles table), supplemented by a contractual tree and then used to develop a schedule of services for each appointment.

• Monitoring and reporting strategies.

• Potential consultations / stakeholder management.

• Communications strategy and standards.

• Technology strategy.

• Risk assessment and risk allocation.

• Strategy for obtaining planning permission and other permissions.

• Health and safety strategy.

• Sustainability strategy

• Quality assurance strategy.

• Soft landings strategy, including business change and staff training requirements, commissioning, handover, migration, aftercare and post occupation evaluation strategy.

• Operational strategy.

• Equipment requirements (inside or outside of the building contract).

• Unusual or long-lead items.

The 2020 edition of the RIBA Plan of Work defines the procurement strategy as: ‘The strategy that sets out the process for tendering and entering into a Building Contract with the contractor. On certain projects, this will include early contractor involvement.’

The list below serves to show that there are many different routes to contracting works and selecting the right strategy can save lots of time and money

Defining the procurement strategy means understanding the following; Speed, Cost, Quality, Specific project constraints, Risk, Asset ownership, Financing.

We work with you to understand the best route to deliver using the list on the right and creating a bespoke procurement plan that fits you needs

Procurement routes to select from

• Construction management

• Contractor led

• Custom build

• Design and build

• Design build finance and operate (PPP / PFI / DBO / BOOT)

• Emerging cost contracts

• Engineering procurement and construction contract (EPC) / turnkey contract

• Engineering procurement and construction management contract (EPCM)

• Fast-track construction

• Furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E)

• Framework agreements

• Guaranteed maximum price

• Lump sum contract

• Management contract

• Measured term contracts

• Measurement contract (re-measurement or measure and value contract)

• Partnering

• Prime cost contract / cost plus contract / cost reimbursable contract

• Prime contracting / prime-type contracting

• Public procurement

• Schedule of rates term contract

• Self-build

• Single-stage tender

• Traditional contract (Design-Bid-Build)

• Two-stage tender

We work with lead designers to understand and translate the RIBA plan of work

• The RIBA Plan of Work organises the process of briefing, designing, constructing and operating building projects into eight stages and explains the stage outcomes, core tasks and information exchanges required at each stage.

• The RIBA stages are great when you are a built environment professional, but very difficult to pull summary information from when you are trying to do your day job. We work with the design team to manage, understand, de-risk and align the key stages to the client brief and strategy

• We work with the design and delivery team to use only what is relevant to the project, focusing attention to detail into areas of importance so that the process is streamlined and appropriate.

• Once the first 4 key stages are designed and a tender pack prepared we will share this with the right contractors for your project based on price point, skill and experience, resource and material availability.

• Once all of the tender returns have been reviewed, clarified and target / guaranteed maximum prices agreed we will write recommendations to you so that you can execute the drafted contracts, which will have been checked by your lawyers, and place orders against the works with employers requirements already completed and vetted by your lawyers

Typical tender submission detail

• In response to an invitation to tender, invited tenderers will submit their tender, which will include their price for supplying the goods or services along with proposals for how the client's requirements will be satisfied - if these have been requested.

• The precise content of tenders will vary considerably depending on the procurement route, however they might include:

• A tender return slip, with details of the contract, including information such as return address and tender checklist;

• A completed tender pricing document (or contract sum analysis on design and build projects);

• Schedules of rates;

• An initial construction phase plan;

• Any design proposals or method statements that have been requested;

• Programme;

• Procedures to be adopted, such as procurement procedures and cost management procedures;

• Demonstration of capability, for example design capability, systems used etc;

• A BIM execution plan - if building information modelling is being used;

• Key project personnel, which may require submission of CVs;

• Management organisation;

• Plant and labour resources and availability;

• Prior experience, and

• References.

The ‘construction process’ (sometimes called the ‘construction stage’) is the physical processes of building, landscaping or refurbishing together with all the associated activities, such as demolition, site clearance, administration and so on.

The process typically starts, following the tender process, with handover of the site from the client to the contractor and end with handing back a completed project to the client. It doesn’t usually include pre-construction activities such as preparation of the brief, forming a design team or design and so on, although these activities may be carried out at the same time as construction.

The site is generally handed back to the client after certification of practical completion. This followed by a defects liability period, during which any defect that become apparent may be rectified by the contractor. There is some debate about when practical completion can be certified and whether it can be certified where there are very minor (de minimis) items 'not affecting beneficial occupancy' that remain incomplete.

We will update you regularly throughout this period acting as an intermediary between the contractor and delivery team so that you get effective communication throughout at the right level of detail and only escalating issues around time, cost and quality that need your attention or require your direct involvement

We will work with you all the way through the defects liability period and make sure final payments are held until such time that the project is fully completed based on completion certificates and cost plans are aligned and then advise of summary statements and final retentions

Typical construction process

• Mobilisation.

• Demolition.

• Site clearance.

• Erection of hoardings, welfare facilities and so on.

• Setting out.

• Excavation.

• Installation of foundations.

• Frame construction.

• Cladding installation.

• Fitting out.

• Landscaping and highways.

Defects liability period, warranties and latent defects

• The defects liability period (now called the 'rectification period' in Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) contracts) begins upon certification of practical completion and typically lasts six to twelve months.

• During this period, the client reports any defects that arise to the contract administrator who decides whether they are defects (i.e. works that are not in accordance with the contract), or whether they are in fact maintenance issues. If the contract administrator considers they are defects, then they may issue instructions to the contractor to make them good within a reasonable time.

• NB: It is actually the contractor's responsibility to identify and rectify defects, not the client's, so if the client does bring defects to the contractor's notice, they should make clear that this is not a comprehensive list of all defects

• At the end of the defects liability period, the contract administrator prepares a schedule of defects, listing those defects that have not yet been rectified, and agrees with the contractor the date by which they will be rectified. The contractor must in any event rectify them within a reasonable time.

We will make sure that the individual projects are effectively completed, with a certificate and statement of practical completion when all the works described in the contract have been carried out. Certifying practical completion has the effect of:

• Releasing half of the retention (an amount retained from payments due to the contractor to ensure they complete the works).

• Ending the contractor's liability for liquidated damages (damages that become payable to the client in the event that there is a breach of contract by the contractor - generally by failing to complete the works by the completion date, where no extension of time is granted).

• Signifying the beginning of the defects liability period.

• 'Practical Completion is a contractual term used in the Building Contract to signify the date on which a project is handed over to the client. The date triggers a number of contractual mechanisms.’

• There is no absolute definition of practical completion and case law is very complex. There is some debate about when practical completion can be certified and whether it can be certified where there are very minor (de minimis) items 'not affecting beneficial occupancy' that remain incomplete.

• We will again make sure that you have a complete, appropriate overview of the completion status and make sure that all documents,, statements, H&S files, warranties and defects logs are completed, summarised and effectively completed for you so that you only have to receive the documents and handbooks

Close out and handover topics

• Beneficial occupation.

• Building completion.

• Certificate of making good defects.

• Certificate of non completion.

• Completion date.

• Defects liability period.

• Defects list.

• Difference between practical completion and partial possession.

• Early use.

• Extension of time.

• Handover to client.

• Liquidated damages.

• Loss and expense.

• Migration strategy.

• Partial possession.

• Phased construction works.

• Possession.

• Punch list.

• Occupation and defects liability period.

• Retention.

• Sectional completion.

• Schedule of defects.

• Snagging.

• Soft landings.

• Substantial completion.

• Time at large.

• Topping out.

• Work-to-complete list.