Architecture & Design
We offer a full range of architectural services, which can be integrated with our in house planning consultancy to provide clients with a joined-up approach to development. We are a design focussed practice who care about the quality of our schemes, whether it be for their new home, or for larger developments. Our fully qualified and experienced architects are able to offer the benefit of many years of design training and industry experience, with a number of specialisms and a wide range of past projects.
We are flexible in our approach, responding to the needs of our clients in terms of the level of service they would like, and how that is structured. We always seek to provide exciting and forward thinking proposals, adding value through our creativity, whilst listening to our clients in terms of style and accommodation. Understanding a Client’s drivers and motivations for their project is very important, and we understand how this can differ from home owner, to developer, through to public sector bodies.
We typically work in stages linked to the RIBA’s Plan of Work, but this can be adapted as required to suit a Client’s individual needs and will work with you to provide whatever design or construction support you might need from inception to completion. In addition to our specialist Planning Consultancy and Conservation services, we can also offer advice on sustainability and have experience with BREEAM within our team. Some of the services we offer are set out below:
Architectural Services
Pre-purchase advice
Feasibility & Capacity studies
Masterplanning
General design advice
Concept design, including 3D visualisation
Pre-Application planning submissions
Public consultations
Detailed design work
Design and Access Statements
Planning applications
Technical design packages
Building Regulations applications
Specification and tendering
Contract Administration
Construction stage advice
Planning
Planning is important in terms of what types of development can go where, and also providing a framework for the control and, where necessary, mitigation of impacts arising from that development. Understanding this can make the difference between fulfilling the full potential of a site, or wasting time and money on proposals that stand no chance of coming to fruition. Good design is inseparable from good planning, and the integration of planning with architecture at T2 means that we are able to deliver outcomes that not only add value in financial terms, but which demonstrably make places better. Well-designed schemes tend to have an easier path through planning, and the right planning input at the right time will make a proposal easier to realise.
Our range of planning advice and services encompasses strategic planning – promoting sites for allocation within development plans, and development planning – obtaining the necessary consents to allow development to proceed. In undertaking this, we are able to draw on extensive experience in the following areas:
Strategic Planning Services
Submitting sites to SHLAA/SHELAA call for sites
Meeting with officers and key bodies to promote sites
Preparing and submitting representations to planning consultations (Reg 18 / Reg 19)
Participating at Examinations in Public and Neighbourhood Plan Examinations, including preparing written hearing submissions
Preparing Whole Estate Plans
Development Planning Services
Advising on the right planning strategy
Pre-application enquiry submissions
Authoring Planning Statements, Design and Access Statements and Heritage Statements (in collaboration with Conservation team)
Planning applications, including Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA) level development
Conservation Area Consent and Listed Building Consents
Conditions discharge
Instructing legal advice where necessary
Planning appeals, including Appeal Hearings
Heritage & Conservation
Working with heritage assets can introduce an additional level of complexity, special considerations and challenges, and a further layer of regulatory control to projects, which require a specialist skill set and understanding of these issues to be undertaken successfully. Whether working on listed or curtilage listed buildings, scheduled ancient monuments, or non-designated heritage assets, these all come with a need to approach any work with the right level of knowledge and a different set of skills to other architectural work. Within our integrated practice these skills are often intertwined with contemporary design and our planning services in order to offer our clients a full suite of skills in one company.
Our Conservation services are delivered by one of our Directors, Ross Aylward, RIBA, CA; a Conservation Architect accredited as such on the RIBA’s specialist Conservation Register, supported by other team members as relevant in each case. These projects can range from repairs and ‘light touch’ works, to more substantial alterations or the thermal upgrading of heritage buildings, through to extensions or major works. Ross has worked extensively on heritage projects for the last 20 years, across all types of asset from non-designated heritage assets to scheduled ancient monuments, and is used to liaising with Conservation Officers and Historic England to reach positive outcomes for our clients.
Amongst the particular skills involved in working as a Conservation Architect are a thorough understanding of the concept and facets of significance and harm, on which each case will ultimately be judged. To this is added a detailed technical knowledge attendant to a variety of forms of traditional construction, how these buildings are designed to function to remain healthy, and importantly how elements such as thermal upgrading or repairs can be sympathetically undertaken. We can advise our clients on all such matters.
Conservation Services
Schedules of condition or record surveys
Appraisals of significance
Schedules of repair
Design work in relation to heritage assets
Heritage statements
Listed building applications
Applications for Scheduled Ancient Monument Consent
Assistance with enforcement action
Technical assistance with thermal upgrading or alterations