Every good building starts well before the first brick, usually with a conversation, a sketch and a few half-formed ideas. The hard part, in a city with as many architects as London, is working out who to have that conversation with. Here's how we'd go about it.
Sean Ronnie Hill and Imran Jahn reviewing a project in the studio. RISE Design Studio.
Before you start collecting images you like, it's worth being honest with yourself about the brief. What are you really trying to build, and why? How much does low energy and running cost matter to you against, say, square metres or finish? A house can look good and still be uncomfortable and expensive to run, so decide early what you want the building to do. Not every architect is set up to deliver the same things, and knowing your own priorities makes it much easier to spot the right one.
Hiring an architect is more like starting a long working relationship than buying a product, so the usual starting points apply: a referral from someone whose own project went well, a portfolio with real depth to it, and a first conversation where you feel listened to rather than sold to. Look past the headline images for evidence of care, detailed project write-ups, client references and a genuine track record on sustainability, and don't lean too hard on a search for "best architect near me."
Drawings matter, but the better part of the job is everything around them: steering you through planning, keeping the budget honest, and spotting things you didn't know were possible. The things worth checking are a clear process from first sketch to handover, real experience with your kind of project (extension, retrofit or new build), plain communication with no jargon and no disappearing, shared priorities on sustainability, and a balance of good ideas with the discipline to actually get them built.
Cost is the obvious question, but it's not the most revealing one. Better to ask how they approach energy efficiency, how they work with existing buildings, whether they've handled clients and sites like yours, and what they do when something goes wrong on site. A good architect welcomes those questions, because the answers help both of you work out whether it's a good fit before either of you is committed.
We see it often enough: someone takes the lowest quote and then spends far more putting right what it missed. Architecture is one of those areas where the fee and what you get are usually linked. It's more useful to think of the cost as buying things that save money later: design decisions that cut the build cost, much lower energy bills over the life of the house, and fewer delays and expensive mistakes along the way. The cheapest option rarely turns out to be the cheapest in the end.
We don't take on every project, not out of fussiness but because this work takes time and runs better when the priorities are shared. We start with a conversation rather than a pitch, we try to understand why you want to build as much as what, and we're open about planning, design, sustainability and cost at each stage. The aim is buildings that do more with less: lower energy, lower carbon, more comfort. We've retrofitted Victorian houses to cut their energy use by around 75%, and worked on cultural buildings that run on a fraction of the energy a standard build would use.
If we're not the right studio for your project, we'll say so and point you toward someone who might suit it better.
You don't need to overthink the first step. A short message along the lines of "here's what I'm thinking, could we talk?" is plenty to start from. Please do get in touch:
→ Email us at architects@risedesignstudio.co.uk
→ Or call the studio on 020 3947 5886
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