Taking your design from approval to reality

Achieving Building Regulations approval is an important milestone in any project. It confirms that the design has been developed to meet the required regulations and standards.

But approval is not the same as having every aspect of a building fully resolved. Building Regulations drawings don’t always include adequate detail to build from or fully capture the overall design intent.

For a complex or carefully designed home, there is a significant difference between demonstrating compliance and fully coordinating the information needed to tender and construct the building.

At Laurence Associates, we offer RIBA Stage 4 in two parts. The first focuses on developing the information required for Building Regulations approval. Stage 4 Part 2 takes the design further,bringing together construction detailing, consultant information and the client’s chosen interior elements to create a more coordinated package for tendering.

Resolving the detail

At this stage, we look more closely at how the building is actually going to come together.

Construction details are developed and coordinated, including key junctions, roof construction, windows and doors, thresholds and interfaces between different elements of the building. Structural information and other consultant requirements are incorporated, helping to ensure that the different parts of the design work together rather than being considered in isolation.

This can be particularly important where a project includes more complex architectural details or bespoke elements.

Coordinating the interiors

Stage 4 Part 2 also provides an opportunity to coordinate the architectural design with the interiors.

We don’t generally provide the interior design itself. Instead, we coordinate the client’s requirements and information from their interior designer or specialist suppliers with the architectural and technical design.

Kitchens, bathrooms, joinery, lighting, electrical and mechanical services, ceilings and finishes can all have implications for the building itself. Even relatively small decisions, such as a concealed blind or curtain system, can require consideration of ceiling construction, window details, structural elements and electrical provision.

Resolving these relationships before construction helps avoid situations where an interior decision made later has to be accommodated within the building as it is being built.

Better information for tendering

The result is a more complete and coordinated set of information that forms the basis of the tender package.

For you as the client, this can provide greater certainty when asking contractors to price the work. The more clearly the design intent and requirements are communicated, the less reliance there is on assumptions, allowances or individual trades interpreting what was intended.

It doesn’t mean that every question will disappear once construction starts, detailed projects will always require some additional information and decisions on site. However, the aim is to resolve as much as reasonably possible beforehand, rather than leaving important decisions until they become construction issues.

Protecting the design you’ve invested in

There is also a wider benefit.

By taking the design through this additional level of coordination, you are not simply producing more drawings. You are helping to protect the design decisions and quality that you have invested in throughout the project.

The kitchen you’ve chosen, the way the lighting works with the ceiling, the relationship between a window and its blind, the detailing of a roof junction or the way a bespoke piece of joinery meets the building, these details all contribute to the finished home.

Stage 4 Part 2 is about making sure those decisions are considered together, before construction begins.

We offer this as a separate service because not every project requires the same level of technical resolution. For projects where quality, coordination and greater pricing certainty are important, however, taking the design from approval through to a coordinated tender package can be a valuable investment.

Building Regulations approval is an important milestone. Stage 4 Part 2 is about taking the approved design and resolving how it will actually become the building you intended.

Truro: 01872 225 259

Exeter: 01392 979 135

Email: hello@laurenceassociates.co.uk