After much consideration at the end of last year, I have decided to close the Construction side of THB.

This decision was not taken lightly. I have enjoyed many years working with great clients, architects, engineers, and highly skilled colleagues and sub-contractors. I am proud of the beautiful buildings we have been a part of creating.

Over time I have become increasingly frustrated working within the limitations of a building model that I consider to be broken.

Too often we receive consented plans for building projects that are considerably over the clients’ budget. This usually leads to a competitive tender process, that in truth is a retrospective cost reduction exercise in the hope of finding a “wrong” price.

In addition, I see too many projects that consider sustainability to be about keeping the house size under 500 square metres! We need to include discussions on the quantities of concrete and steel used, minimising excavation and sourcing local sustainably grown products where possible.

I am currently involved in a software project that will help address these issues.

We will provide a tool that gives designers real time input on cost and carbon footprint during the design process, on their existing design software. The above discussions can be engaged in, and decisions made with cost and sustainability implications appraised during the design process. This is far more desirable than the inefficient and costly process that arises when trying to modify a project retrospectively.

Watch this space!

If I have one piece of advice for anyone considering a building project, it would be to engage a builder that you respect and trust as early in the process as possible.