Full Architectural Service in London

The RIBA Plan of Work organises a project into clear stages: strategic definition, preparation and briefing, concept design, spatial coordination, technical design, manufacturing and construction, and handover. A full service runs across all of them, so each stage is properly resolved before the next begins and one team holds the whole picture — the brief, the design, the approvals, the consultants and the build — rather than handing it off in fragments.

On constrained, high-value London projects, the cost of gaps between stages is high: a design that ignores planning reality, technical drawings that lose the design intent, or a build that drifts from what was approved and priced. A full service closes those gaps. We brief, design, secure approvals, produce coordinated technical information, run the tender, and support construction — including contract administration where we are appointed and insured for it.

A full service delivers something tangible at each RIBA stage. Feasibility and briefing establish what is wanted and what the property allows; concept design develops the idea into tested options; the planning stage secures permission; technical design produces the coordinated building regulations and construction information; and the construction stage takes the project through tender, the build and handover. Knowing what each stage produces — and that it is resolved before the next begins — is what makes a full service predictable rather than a leap of faith.

The quiet value of a full service is that one accountable team holds the whole project. We coordinate the structural engineer, the energy assessor, the surveyor and any specialists, so the consultants’ information lines up and you are not left mediating between advisers who have never spoken. Instead of managing a series of disconnected appointments, you have a single relationship and a single point of responsibility for how the parts fit together — which is exactly where complex London projects tend to succeed or unravel.

A full service does not have to mean an all-or-nothing commitment. Because the work follows the RIBA stages, the appointment can too: many clients engage us through planning and then decide on the construction stages once permission is secured, while others want us from first sketch to final handover. We agree the scope and the basis of our fee stage by stage, so the service fits the project and your appetite rather than forcing a single template onto every commission.