Collaboration by Design
Latest news
January 2012
Design advice for building enhancements
The Urbanists and Powell Dobson Architects have won an important commission with Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council to improve the quality of buildings in Merthyr Tydfil and Treharris.
December 2011
The Portas Review Reviewed
The decline of the High Street is now firmly in the public consciousness following the release of the Portas Review last week. James Brown, our lead director for regeneration, reflects on the key messages.
Why use us
- We help to manage change
- Successful 'place-making' is dependent upon an ability to manage and respond to change. We use our knowledge to help our clients identify and take advantage of emerging opportunities by responding to and anticipating change. Our team also has unrivalled expertise in establishing collective ownership for a new opportunity, solution or project, through our ability to communicate change to a variety of audiences via a variety of techniques.
- We develop visions
- We integrate the aims and objectives of our clients into visions that are inspirational and realistic. To ensure that we achieve this balance we take time to listen and understand our clients' needs, as well as the character of the local area and the needs of local people. This allows us to provide outcomes that not only satisfy our client's requirements but enhance the quality of the local area and its inhabitants.
- We navigate the planning system
- Being able to navigate the planning system efficiently and successfully can define the commercial viability of a project. Our planning specialists understand this, and utilise their extensive experience to ensure that our clients get the planning outcomes they need. Our professionalism means that we often open up new commercial opportunities for our clients that were not initially considered in the project brief.
- We get people involved
- Places are social as well as physical entities. We are conscious of the need to include as many people as possible in the process of change so that we provide our clients with solutions that are informed, accurate and supported. We have developed a number of strong communication and consultation methods that mean we can guarantee increased community participation and solutions that have local support.
- We implement visions and deliver success
- Creating inspirational visions is only one aspect necessary in order to create a successful place. The ability to efficiently implement and deliver solutions is equally important, and we have a track record of transforming our visions into a reality. Our skills as planning consultants and landscape architects alongside Powell Dobson Architects mean that by working with us, clients feel confident that we can implement their needs to the finest detail.
- We integrate sustainability into everything we do
- All the solutions we provide are geared towards creating sustainable places in the broadest sense, by considering the long term economic, environmental and social implications of our decisions. This ensures the solutions that we provide have a flexibility to respond to changing challenges and circumstances. As a Code for Sustainable Homes Assessor we are able to provide our clients with sustainability advice from concept stages through to post construction code assessments. Our relationship with Powell Dobson Architects means that we can also provide advice on how to meet BREEAM ratings for non residential projects.