Ask any client what worries them most about a new building and the answer is rarely the design. It is the moment, months into the project, when the tender comes back over budget. Our answer is not a bigger contingency. It is a cost model that is always up to date.
Quantities from the model
Because the whole team works in one shared model, the quantities of concrete, steel, cladding and glazing are always current. Our cost planners link them to rates every week, so the cost plan reflects the design as it is today — not as it was at the end of the last stage.
Cost as a design input
When the cost of a decision is visible the same day, the conversation changes. Instead of asking whether we can afford a larger canopy at the end of design development, we compare three options in a single meeting and choose the one that earns its place.
“We stopped asking “what will it cost?” at the end. We ask it every Thursday.”
Fig. 02 — Design and cost teams work side by side in one open studio
What ±3% means
Across our last twenty projects, the final account landed on average within three percent of the budget agreed at the end of the Define phase. The number matters less than what produces it: no surprises at tender, fewer redesigns and a client who can plan the rest of the business around a figure they trust.
A live cost model is not a software feature. It is a habit — and like most good habits, it is regular, a little boring and very hard to argue with.
