Ensuring that a building can function as well as it looks

Whilst building services change over time, architecture is for life – and needs to be able to adapt to the seasons, to different uses, to decades or centuries of use.

We’ve been in this business for a long time and have worked with architects and architectural designs for retail, commercial, educational, healthcare and domestic spaces. Usually, form and function go hand in hand, but sometimes the form relies too heavily on the building services for the function.

The most practical approach to building design, leaving room for flexibility and adaptations, is to reduce the reliance on mechanical and electrical systems. If a window needs electricity to open it, if awkwardly shaped spaces can’t accommodate furniture, if natural light and fresh air are blocked, you have a building – no matter how beautiful – that can’t function.

When we are commissioned to design building services for a space – new or repurposed – our starting point is always to design out unnecessary interventions and to reduce the user’s reliance on artificial light, air and movement.Here’s our checklist for designing a functional space:

1. The user. Who will it be and what do they need?
2. Purpose. What will the space be used for and how can the building services support that purpose?
3. Practicality. Does the intervention work, simply and easily, without complex instructions, for everyone?
4. Real not artificial. How can we improve users’ access to natural light and fresh air?
5. Running costs. How can we keep them to a minimum?
6. Interior design. Working with the design and allowing for flexibility. Look and feel are important.
7. Maintenance. Simple, accessible, robust building services.

Find out how our approach has improved function in beautiful spaces at Macclesfield Town Hall, a free school in Nottingham and a farmhouse in Kidderminster.