As the country adapts to life under lockdown, Pride Road Architects have reshaped their celebrated Concept Design Workshops and now offer them online. This new way of working has proved to be very popular with clients and even caught the attention of the Architects’ Journal.
The Concept Design Workshop is something unique to Pride Road Architects, and it is the process whereby they design your home extension right there with you at your kitchen table. During the lockdown, it has been possible to do this all online via video calls. At first, it was thought that this may feel a little unusual for architects and clients, but in fact, as these clients say below, it has proved to be just as useful and convenient for both parties.
About her experience, Gemma said;
“It’s been great today, I’ve had Magda at the house twice which has been really good, and we’ve just had a follow-up workshop using an online tool which has been brilliant, it’s just as good as having her sat here in front of us. Really clear on the computer, lots of detail on the drawings, still felt like you got that personal touch. It’s worked really well!”
And about her online workshop experience, Lesley said;
“I thought it would be quite difficult to look and see at the same time but actually it was really easy to look down on the plans. Almost made it easier probably than looking down at the table with you. I found it quite an enjoyable process… You get used to it very quickly, it seemed alien to begin with to do it online but actually you forget you’re online.”
Talking about why more and more clients are opting for Pride Road’s Concept Design Workshops, Architect Magda says; “The workshop is an inexpensive answer to their questions… How much will my extension cost? What can I do with my house?” In order to be sure you’re committing to the right design for your house extension, it’s worth taking the time to explore all the options you have available to you. That way you can be confident and totally sure that your design is the right solution for your needs. “It starts only from £200 and provides many options, we get down to the bottom of the issue of what doesn’t function well in the layout of the house, exploring the options you would never thought about until you see them drawn!”
Pride Road Architects ethos is to offer a bespoke architect service that works around their clients. What’s important is the personal approach – getting to the heart of your project, and involving you in the process right from the outset.
At the Online Concept Design Workshop, the architect gets to know you and understand your needs and they work on finding the right options for you. This begins by asking questions about how you use your home and what’s important to you about the changes you want to make. Then, they run with some ideas and do the drawings right there in front of you!
Of this part of the process, Jonathan, who also had an online workshop said;
“We’ve worked through a few different designs based on my ideas, Lisa’s (architect) more informed ideas, explored what could be possible with the house… it’s been really good actually, it’s kind of challenged my preconceived ideas of where walls are and how the layout is. And to actually kind of have that better view of the flow, and what actually could you do, even upstairs… it does give you a few ideas of tweaks and mix-and-match. And the downstairs I think is really useful – to see the range of options between a smaller, more limited budget to actually the full-blown ‘go big or go home’ approach of what we could do with it”
One challenge that did manifest was what to do in the case whereby a homeowner doesn’t have plans of the pre-existing layout. The solution? The client purchases a measuring laser and with the support of their architect collects all the measurements needed for the workshop. This has demonstrated to be an enjoyable and valuable experience for the client. Jonathan said;
“I found it quite fun actually, its quite good to actually walk around the house and look at it in probably a bit more detail when measuring it. I found that quite straight forward and quite good to really look at the house as you measure it, yeah it worked really well… When I was measuring the dining room, actually standing in the corner where you never actually stand, and you look out the window in a different way, and you think ‘ah it would actually be nice if we looked out this way a bit more’ or to open up a bit more, so that was quite useful doing that!”
Watch Lisa (Pride Road Architect) talk with Jonathan about his experience of an Online Concept Design Workshop
Pride Road Architect’s Concept Design Workshops are currently subject to a limited time offer of only £200 instead of the usual £300 or £500. At such incredible value and with the remarkable feedback they’ve had – you can see why these architects are busier than ever!
Are you interested in finding out more about how Pride Road Architects can help you design your dream home? Right now they are offering free initial consultations where you can talk initial ideas with an architect and find out more about the Pride Road process.
