Design & Specification

Good design is not an architectural style — it is the mechanism by which ambition becomes reality. We provide considered design input and technical specification for retrofit and new-build residential projects, from writing the first concept brief to validating that the final home operation achieves the original outcomes.

We work at the intersection of architectural rigour and energy systems expertise, producing requirements for designs and specifications that are technically robust, practically deliverable, and focused on verified in-use performance rather than just modelled predictions.

What this looks like in practice

• Brief setting exercises: what’s important to your organisation, what can you afford, and how do you marry the two?
• Holistic design support, commonly ‘Client side’, to define and protect outcomes that can be pragmatically achieved and evidenced.
• Technical requirements and specifications for fabric, ventilation, energy and storage systems, integrating sector-wide expert contacts when required,
• Performance frameworks and specification strategy for low-carbon retrofit and new build homes, designed so you can contract on them,
• Detailed energy performance modelling, design-stage quality assurance and specification writing for contractors and supply chains,
• Post-occupancy review and performance gap analysis, data-led reporting and diagnosis, including ‘lessons learned’ compilation and reporting.

We're comfortable working across scales — from single homes to large-scale programmes — and at any stage of the design process, whether shaping early concepts or resolving construction details.