office information - issued to clients
a-100
Practice
Nine people in one room, six projects a year, and a way of working that puts the slow part at the front. This sheet is the one we send before a first meeting: who you would be working with, what happens in what order, what it costs, and what we decline.
We draw first and are slower for it
Ostwerk is nine people in one room: seven architects, one structural engineer and one model maker. The engineer sits with us rather than being consulted at the end, which is why the sections on this site have real structure in them at the stage where structure can still change the plan.
Every project starts as a sectional drawing, before the plan. A plan answers how much; a section answers whether. How far daylight reaches into the lowest room, how much sound crosses a floor, how the structure stands and where the water sits - those are the questions that decide whether a brief is buildable, and they are all vertical.
It makes us slower at the start and considerably faster afterwards. Six projects a year is what nine people can do that way, so six is what we take.
Ilse Brandt
Founding partner, architect
at ostwerk since 2014
Pieter Vos
Founding partner, architect
at ostwerk since 2014
Nadia Kerr
Associate, architect
at ostwerk since 2016
Tomas Leidt
Architect
at ostwerk since 2018
Ruth Emory
Architect
at ostwerk since 2019
Sam Ohara
Architect
at ostwerk since 2021
Joana Petrik
Architect
at ostwerk since 2023
Elin Rask
Structural engineer
at ostwerk since 2017
Hal Wintour
Model maker
at ostwerk since 2015
the model maker is not a luxury - every project gets a 1:50 model in cardboard and one in timber, and the cardboard one is usually where the section changes for the last time
Five stages, and the drawings get bigger as they go
- 1:100
First section
2 weeksWe cut one section through your site and write a page on what we think the real problem is. Sometimes the answer is that you do not need an architect, and we would rather find that out here than in month nine.
issued: one section, one page of notes
- 1:50
Design
8 to 14 weeksPlans, sections and elevations developed together, with the structural engineer in the room from the first week. Two models: cardboard first, which is where the section usually changes for the last time, then timber.
issued: full 1:50 set, two models
- permit set
Permission
6 to 20 weeksWe prepare and submit the application and answer the queries. The timetable in this stage is not ours and we will not pretend otherwise - we will tell you the range for your authority at the start.
issued: application drawings, statements, correspondence
- 1:5
Construction information
10 to 16 weeksThe drawings a builder actually works from: junctions at 1:5, window and door schedules, finishes, specification. This is the longest stage and the one that decides what the building costs.
issued: tender set, schedules, specification
- 1:1
On site
for the durationOne architect visits weekly, and it is the same architect who drew it. We value the work monthly, agree variations in writing before they happen, and keep a marked-up set that becomes your record drawings at handover.
issued: weekly reports, valuations, record drawings
What it costs
We charge a percentage of construction cost - 9% for a new building on a clear site, up to 12% where there is existing fabric to survey and work around. It is invoiced monthly against the stage in progress, and the percentage is fixed at appointment, not recalculated upwards when the cost moves.
The first section is a fixed fee of £1,200 regardless of the size of the project. If you go on to appoint us it is deducted from the first invoice. If you do not, the drawing is still yours.
no fee for the first conversation - we do not bill for meeting you
What we turn down
- Competitions we have not been invited to. We have never won one and we stopped paying to lose.
- Projects where the contractor is appointed before the drawings exist. There is nothing left for us to decide and the client pays us to agree.
- Sites more than two hours away. The weekly visit is not optional, and it stops being weekly at three hours.
- A seventh project in a year. The six we have are already promised a named architect every week.
The first section is two weeks away
Tell us the site and the constraint you believe is fixed. Two weeks later you get a section and a page of notes for a fixed £1,200, and you owe us nothing further whichever way you go.