Ninety minutes, before anything gets drawn
A paid working session on your situation specifically — what to prioritise, what to question, and what to protect. Credited in full if you commission a design.
The most expensive decisions get made before anyone draws
Those get decided early, often casually, and almost always before an architect is involved. By the time drawings exist they’ve hardened into assumptions nobody revisits.
The Clarity Session is where we look at them properly, while changing your mind still costs nothing.
A working session, not a pitch
Ninety minutes with the principal architect, on your situation and nothing else.
Not a pitch. Not a portfolio walkthrough. A working session — you bring what you have, and we work through it together.
The session is where we find out whether the project in your head and the project on that lot are the same thing.
A short written read, sent after the session
What we’d prioritise
The decisions that matter most, in the order they should be made.
What we’d question
The assumptions worth testing before they cost money.
What we’d protect
What’s already right about your thinking, and shouldn’t get lost.
What to resolve before design begins
The specific things that make a commission go smoothly or badly.
No drawings. That’s deliberate. Drawings this early would be a guess dressed up as an answer, and they’d anchor you to a direction before the questions underneath it are settled.
Depending on scope — a bare lot takes less work than a session reviewing existing plans, quotes, and a half-committed direction.
Credited in full against your design fee if you go on to commission us. If you don’t, you keep the written read and use it however you like — including with another architect.
We charge for it because free advice is easy to dismiss. When something costs nothing, it weighs nothing, and neither side prepares properly.
Three steps, and only one of them is paid
Pre-Design Suite
Nine tools, about twenty minutes, and you arrive with numbers instead of guesses. Per square meter is where the conversation starts. It’s not where good decisions get made.
Introductory call
Short, and only if you want it. We confirm whether your project, budget band and timeline are a match for the studio. It isn’t an advisory call; no design judgment gets given there.
Clarity Session
Ninety minutes on your situation, and a written read afterwards. If you commission a design, what the session established feeds straight into schematic design.
You do not need to be ready to commission anything. Some clients take the session and start design six months later. Some take it and decide not to build at all — which is also a good outcome, arrived at cheaply.
It’s a paid working session with a deliverable.
No drawings, no scheme, no fee quote for the project.
If we’re not the right studio for the project, we’ll say so — and where we can, point you toward someone who is.
Common questions
How long is it, and where?
Ninety minutes, in the studio or online. Site visits are arranged separately.
Who will I be talking to?
The principal architect. There are no junior staff managing enquiries here.
When do I get the written read?
Within five business days of the session.
Is the credit time-limited?
Yes — the fee is credited in full if you commission a design within 60 days of the session. That’s the same window as the MET Editions upgrade path.
What if we’re not a fit?
Then you’ve spent a small amount to find that out early, and you still have the written read. That’s a good trade compared with discovering it three months into a design contract.
Do I need to have a lot already?
No. Buy-versus-build and lot selection are among the most useful things to bring.
If subtlety makes sense to you, we will get along.
We take on a limited number of residential commissions each year to protect standards, principal attention and timelines. If that posture sounds like the kind of studio you want to work with — write to us.