The approach
We sell the thinking that decides a project, and only that.
Most of a building's value, and almost all of its risk, is settled in the first three stages, before a brick is laid. We work there, on a fixed fee, and we do it well enough that everything downstream becomes cheaper.
The front of the process
Three stages, taken seriously, then handed on.
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Strategic definition
Whether this project, on this site, should exist at all. The question almost nobody is paid to ask, and the one that saves the most.
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Preparation and brief
The brief, set down as a set of decisions rather than a wish list. Where most projects quietly fail without ever knowing it.
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Concept design
The vision and the direction, resolved so every later trade can be hired competitively against something clear.
The fee philosophy
The high fixed fee is what lets you go cheap everywhere else.
We charge fixed fees, banded by the complexity of the thinking, never as a percentage of a build. A percentage pegs the fee to the wrong thing and punishes the best work on the smallest, hardest sites.
Everyone begins with a short, paid diagnostic: your brief and your reckoning, set down properly. It is a finished deliverable, and it is credited against the concept fee if you proceed. We never quote a concept blind, and you never reach the deeper work without a small first step.
Commission the thinking here, receive a delivery ready concept, then hire the remaining stages competitively. Owners often find their total professional fees come out lower, with far better thinking where it counts. Fees are set on your brief. We will not quote against a budget or an hour.