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Sectors and Services

At present, we are most actively engaged in:

Strategic Scale Growth

We make the case for strategic scale growth and investment in shaping plans and policies that deliver change.

 

On most of our projects, we start with the big picture; urban design and architecture come later to complete the vision. Our first priority is to make sure that there is real substance behind the objectives. Change needs to be rationalised, tested and justified. We like nothing better than when thinking starts at regional or subregional level and looks beyond the immediate time horizon. We plan change at scale, helping to formulate policy and put the right things in the right places to serve community needs, safeguard natural assets and amenity, build connections, make travel safe and efficient, deliver economic potential and secure a sustainable future.

Master Planning

We creatively masterplan to shape beautiful and functional places.

 

Good master planning is not just an exercise in site layout or a vehicle for architectural determinism. It is a multi-disciplinary and iterative process of visioning and designing distinctive and functional places. We are central to this, synthesising technical inputs and commercial considerations, inputting delivery know-how and injecting creativity and ambition. Our master planning is more than mere illustration, we create compelling vision and storytelling. Clear rationale, compelling vision and storytelling, robust and tested parameters, land use scenarios supporting viability and delivery strategies are the outputs that mean our master planning is more than mere illustration. 

Shaping Best Practice & Great Places

We develop best practice, policy, guidance and coding to direct development towards optimal outcomes.

 

We are passionate advocates for highly functional and sustainable environments that users can be proud of and that encourage healthy lifestyles. Our work invests directly in innovation and contributes to cutting-edge research, so our thinking remains at the forefront of and influences the industry. We specialise in strategic and site-specific design codes and have been design coding since the early 1990s. We affect change through policy and best practice guidance, including training for those working in the built environment sector. Many of our experienced practitioners sit on Design Panels, lecture, undertake positive outreach and support lobbying activities.

New Communities

We plan, masterplan and co-ordinate the delivery of new communities, and have more than 150,000 homes on our books. 

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For over 35 years we have remained committed to creating large scale, sustainable mixed-use communities, as an optimal solution to meet growth needs. We have unrivalled knowledge, experience and expertise in master planning, planning and supporting the delivery of highly complex but worthwhile projects. This work embraces our core skills in planning policy and process, co-ordinating environmental impact assessments, mapping and graphic communications, community engagement and delivery co-ordination. We proudly produced the Government’s last published guidance on delivering new settlements, Alternative Development Patterns: New Settlements for the Department of the Environment, and have since delivered many new communities. As politics shift, we look forward with hope, to a new era of New Town development.

Campus Communities

We deliver and reimagine campus communities for education, employment, science and medical occupiers.

 

We have a long track record and growing expertise in creating, shaping and transforming campus communities. There are always circumstances that underpin the case for and success of specialist communities, in many instances linked to a need in provision for health, education and science facilities, or research and employment clusters. We are experts in making the case for change, and hold firm to the principles of good place making to ensure these important places serve their primary purpose but are also adaptable.

Logistics and Data Centres

We deliver the floorspace needed to meet the demand for logistics and data storage space.

 

We are specialists in negotiating consents and delivering the essential infrastructure that sustains economic activity, provides jobs and services communities. We have helped to reshape the spatial operation of the logistics sector and continue to advocate and plan for this essential infrastructure. In the last decade, data storage has become the largest component of this workstream and is a core area of our work.  Our experience in strategic planning ensures that locations are optimised.  Our effective development management skills enable ideas to be delivered from vision, to outline, to reserved matters, to the discharge of the last condition.

Commercial Development & Employment

We expand and adapt the property portfolios of some of the UK’s most important commercial operations, most notably in the automotive sector.

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We have cultivated extensive specialist knowledge, from working directly with blue-chip clients, who are not developers but invest in new development as a means to support manufacturing operations. These activities span everything from Iron Bru to defence equipment. We understand and respond to the different commercial imperatives which motivate these clients securing policy protection, allocation and permissions, not least in the dynamic automotive sector which has become a core area of our expertise.

Regenerating Neighbourhoods & Centres

We regenerate neighbourhoods and town and city centres to accommodate current needs

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We have always designed, planned and helped to deliver new centres to anchor new communities but in parallel have a strong track record in breathing new life into existing neighbourhoods, centres and heritage buildings. As brick-and-mortar retailing has receded, we have been at the forefront of shaping the renaissance of centres to serve new and varied functions, with a focus on community, health, leisure and amenity.  Learning lessons from the past, we strive to ensure that the built environment is shaped, repurposed and remains adaptable to the changing needs of society. We have prepared policy, supplementary guidance, development frameworks, investment strategies, design guidance and master plans, as well as securing permission to support implementation.

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Investment & Development Opportunity Appraisal

We advise and guide clients in their search for investment and development opportunities.

 

We assist many and varied clients in bringing together and examining the considerations which are relevant to site searches, portfolio reviews and land purchases, often collating and sieving data using GIS. Clients seek our assistance to support bidding, risk and due diligence exercises as well as site capacity testing,

 

We don’t shout about or feature these projects; they are mostly confidential, but we are always happy to assist in the search for new opportunities.  

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