Our 6 stage process
We understand that as a developer you’re in the business of making great places to live. That your business thrives on your reputation for high quality housing, and that you need to get the best return on your investments possible. Thinking Buildings can support you in achieving your aims, with the level of support that best suits your needs, whether that’s help to meet your planning goals, right through to end-to-end support.
#1. Brief & feasibility
The early stages of a development project are crucial. Once we understand your customer base and market aims we can test your site so that you can see what capacity it has and what sort of return it might make. Armed with that information you’ll know if it is viable to pursue, or not.
We are best suited to sites with some challenges attached, whether that be conservation areas, TPO restrictions or flooding risks. We have the knowledge to highlight the challenges and issues that may make it difficult, which will give you the confidence to pursue sites that others might dismiss.
#2. Concept design
Leading into detailed design in order to test reaction with local authority, pre-planning.
Working as part of a team, network to draw on.
Once you’re clear that a site has potential, we can help develop that through the next stages. We help developer clients through the pre-application planning process and any consultations that may be required, so that we are best placed to put a strong application in when you are ready.
We’re very experienced in working with a team of consultants to explore all aspects of the site that might need investigation. We have a network of trusted consultants in planning, ecology, topographical and building surveys and more that we can call on if needed. We are also more than happy to work with your team.
#3. Planning, development & submission
Once we have developed a scheme with you and the consultant team we can bring our considerable experience to bear on making the best possible opportunity for planning success for your scheme.
By this time we will start to see the information filter back in from the investigations and surveys so those can start to be added to the mix. Once you have a design you’re happy with, we’ll start developing the 3D model. From that model we can then create all the plans, elevations and renders we need to really give your project the best chance through the planning system.
We will advise you to put together the strongest possible case for your site, and support that with documents, drawings and visualisations to really sell the benefits of the scheme to the planning officers. We’ll also manage any other consultants and talk to the planners through the determination process.
#4. Technical design
Given we tend to be called into the more challenging sites, our developer clients find that having our input at the technical development stage can really help smooth out the process of getting to site.
More complex sites can come with intricate in sensitive planning conditions, building control requirements and technical build issues. We can help take some of that load from you and ensure everything is considered. As we work in 3D, we can test a lot of the key issues with our model, before you even get to site, which allows us to develop a geometrically coherent and well worked through set of technical plans.
#6. Completion & handover
Our experience in working with our developer clients is that the design quality an architect designed scheme can offer leads to a maximisation of the possible market values and ensures that plots are desirable to buyers, ensuring a prompt sale and return on investment. Attractive and successful projects then add to an existing portfolio and create assurance and confidence in your future offerings to the market.
Recent projects
Take a look at some of our recent work
