We aim to make our shared journey both stimulating and enjoyable, culminating in outstanding buildings and spaces for living which are well-designed, thoughtful and quality-driven.
We've distilled down our process into nine simple steps. You can join this process at any point along the way, depending on the scope and scale of your project.
Nine simple steps to create your space for living.
Every Open project starts with a simple conversation.
To get to know you. To understand what you want from your project, from the mainstream to the magical. Together, we’ll unearth what is at the heart of your vision.
We’ll make a site visit, followed by the submission of a brief and fee proposal, to ensure our understanding is aligned with yours, financially and visually.
We then undertake a detailed project analysis.
The team arrange a site survey and liaise with our trusted third-party specialists to ensure our design work is accurate, feasible, and deliverable.
Here’s the fun part. We bring carefully curated design concepts to the table, each one being a slightly varied approach to the brief. Why? To help draw out the vision of your project and explore with you the opportunities you may not have known existed.
We like to keep the possibilities open and provide you space to tailor, tweak and blend ideas.
We’ll explain the research and insight that brought about these designs, and be honest about any logistical and financial factors to consider when taking your project forward to the next stage.
Once you’ve chosen your preferred conceptual direction, we go back to the drawing board to fine-tune your preferred design scheme and proposal.
We take your feedback into consideration, make sure the practicalities meet the purpose of the building and provide you with a transparent project budget. The budget will be reviewed prior to developing the proposals for statutory consents.
It’s at this point, once you are 100% happy with the design, that we will begin the formal approval process.
Proposals are finalised and planning applications are submitted.
In many respects, this is when the hard work starts. Establishing a dialogue with the Local Authority to put your project on the path to success.
Following approval, it all starts to feel very real.
To support you through the technical design process, we will work up the project for compliance with building regulations. We provide you with a detailed pack of carefully coordinated information, which sets out all of the requirements to drive the project through to complete the build. At this point, the project can go to tender and contractors can quote.
We will work closely with you and your chosen contractor and lead on the necessary contracts to ensure your vision is translated into the finished build and that if any amendments are needed, they do not compromise the original design intent.
As the plans and specifications go from studio to site, we are very much by your side.
With construction underway, we make regular site visits to ensure the project is running to schedule, meeting the approved design drawings and keeping everyone informed of progress and any budget changes.
After the paint has dried, we like to hear your feedback and address any areas where we can learn from the finished building 'in use'.
And to celebrate the achievement of transforming your unique vision and ambition into a fully-formed, real life space for living.
