We start with a Decision Brief. Three weeks, one fixed fee, one report.
What it is
A written brief on the decisions your project has to get right before an architect is hired — specific to your situation, your building type, and the people who will use it.
Why it is a condition
Without it we would be guessing. A mandate built on a guess does not fail at the start. It fails eighteen months in, when the geometry is fixed and the money is spent, and by then nobody can tell whether the advice was wrong or the brief was.
It is also how we decide. Three weeks inside a project tells us whether the organisation intends to change anything. If it does not, we say so and stop there — and you keep the brief.
How it runs
- Week one The session
Half a day with you and the people who will have to live with the decision. Structured, not exploratory. We establish which situation you are actually in, what has already been decided, and what is still open.
- Week two The research
We search the literature against your building type, your user groups and the specific decisions in front of you. Every finding is graded. Findings that do not hold up are excluded, and we say which.
- Week three The brief
Delivered as a document and walked through in ninety minutes. Written to be forwarded — to a board, a funder, a project team — without needing us in the room.
What is in it
- 1
Your situation, named — and what that situation forces on the organisation whether or not you plan for it.
- 2
The decisions in front of you, listed, with which are reversible and which are not.
- 3
The published evidence bearing on each one, graded for quality, with sources.
- 4
The blind spots. What is not being discussed that should be.
- 5
What belongs in the architect's brief, in language an architect can work from.
The report is yours, unconditionally.
Fee and capacity
- Fee €15,000, fixed, plus VAT
If it becomes a full engagement, the fee is credited against it. If it does not, nothing further is owed and nothing further is proposed.
- Duration Three weeks
One half-day session, two weeks of research and writing, one ninety-minute handover.
- Capacity Eight a year
Alongside five mandates. We are three people and all three are on every brief.
What it is not
It is not a design proposal. It is not a feasibility study. It is not a certification path, and it is not a workplace strategy.
It is the document that should exist before any of those are commissioned, and usually does not.
Six questions. We reply to every request, usually within two working days.
- 1
Your organisation.
- 2
Your role.
- 3
Your situation: a new build, a relocation, an expansion, a consolidation, or not sure yet.
- 4
Building type, and roughly how many people.
- 5
When the first irreversible decision has to be made.
- 6
Where to reply.
We decline more than we accept. Usually because the decision is already made and the remaining question is a design question, or because the organisation wants a better building around an unchanged organisation. If we decline, we tell you why, and where to look instead.