How a project moves
Six stages from a plot to a handed-over building, and what you hold at the end of each one.
Not every project starts at the first stage. A scheme someone else began is taken on at the stage it has reached, and the first task is establishing which decisions are already locked and which are still open.
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01
Before the brief
What the plot should become, and what it should not, before the plot is committed.
What you hold at the end- A site and product assessment
- Programme and phasing options at order of magnitude
- An honest list of what is still unknown, and what would resolve it
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02
The framework
On a large site: land use, density and phasing, tested against what the plot can carry.
What you hold at the end- A land-use and density framework
- A phasing plan in which each phase stands alone
- A drawing set an authority can review
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03
Concept
The section, the structural grid and the envelope are set first; form is the last decision.
What you hold at the end- Massing, section and structural grid
- The envelope strategy against the climate
- Renders where the project needs to be presented
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04
Design development
Architecture, structure and services in one model, detailed far enough that nothing is left for the contractor to invent.
What you hold at the end- One federated model with a tracked clash log
- Typical and critical facade details
- Coordinated drawing sets issued from the model
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05
Tender and authority submission
The documents a contractor prices from and an authority reviews.
What you hold at the end- Tender documentation and specifications
- A performance specification for the envelope
- Authority submission drawings
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06
Site to handover
Regular presence on site while decisions are live, through to close-out.
What you hold at the end- Answers to site queries at the speed the site asks them
- Snagging and defects lists through to close-out
- Handover documentation
Which stage are you at?
Say where the project stands — site, stage, what you are deciding — and the right person answers.