RIBA Chartered Architects
London & Essex

For property developers · London & Essex

Your margin is a design decision.

DZP Studio is a chartered practice that designs multi-unit schemes to sell high and build lean, and shows you the numbers before you commit to the site.

Book a callRun your numbers ↓

Illustrative masterplan, 14 units across 11 homes, one small planet · drag to orbit

What the site allows, and what it's worth.

Planning viability and financial viability usually get answered by two different people, months apart. We answer both, wherever you are with the site.

01

Just looking at it

Start with the report. Constraints, designations, planning history, what neighbours have been approved and refused for, comparable sales and local ceiling values, enough to decide whether the site is worth a serious look, for the cost of an hour of professional time. It comes with a free 30-minute call, and if you then hire us as your architect, the report fee comes off our fee. Check your address →

02

Offer in, not yet completed

The point where the answer matters most and time is shortest. We test the development assumption behind your offer: does the density you have priced actually fit, will the council wear it, and does the precedent support it. If the answer is no, better to know now.

03

You own the site

Feasibility and options appraisal, planning strategy, pre-application where it is worth it, then full design and delivery. Where a previous scheme has been refused, we will tell you honestly whether to appeal, revise or rethink. Case study: North Weald, Epping; one house into three →

Interactive appraisal

Run your numbers.

Drag the sliders. The crimson is what design efficiency reclaims for your margin.

The efficiency dial is our cost-engineering target range; every scheme differs. On a real appraisal we evidence it line by line.
12
70 m²
£5,500/m²
£2,600/m²
−9%

12 units · 3 semi-detached + 6 detached · 840 m² GIA

Gross development value
£4.62m
Build cost (DZP)
£1.99m
vs £2.18m conventional
Reclaimed for margin
£197k
+4.3 pp of GDV

Conventional

With DZP

Build cost Gross margin Reclaimed by design

Illustrative only. Excludes land, finance, professional fees and s106/CIL. A real appraisal is scheme-specific; that's what the consultation is for.

Why the numbers hold on site.

01

Buildability decided early

Structural grids, spans and repeatable components are fixed at concept stage, so the design intent survives the QS instead of being value-engineered out of it.

02

Planning read like an investor

Constraints, policy and precedent are analysed before design begins, using the same engine behind our Property Insight Reports, so the scheme we draw is the scheme that consents.

03

Drawings that de-risk the tender

Coordinated, unambiguous packages mean fewer provisional sums and variations: the places where a developer's margin usually leaks on site.

Projects delivered
0+
Years in practice
0+
Chartered
RIBA
Registered
ARB

From site to sold.

One practice, end to end: no hand-offs where the scheme loses its logic.

01

Feasibility

Capacity, constraints and an appraisal view, before you commit.

02

Concept

Massing, unit mix and the cost strategy, resolved together.

03

Planning

Application, negotiation and committee, managed for you.

04

Technical

Regs and a tender package priced tight, not provisional.

05

Delivery

Site queries and variations kept under control to completion.

Full service

RIBA Stages 0 to 7.

Everything above, plus construction information, tender and contract administration, site inspections, and Principal Designer duties under CDM 2015.

Fees are staged, so you commit one phase at a time.

Start with a site

Bring us your site.

A 30-minute feasibility consultation with our principal architect: constraints, planning context and capacity signals, before you've spent real money.

Book a call

No obligation: a conversation, not a commitment.