Thrive In Construction with Darren Evans

Ep. 44 Becoming the 'Uber of Architecture': How Resi is Paving the Way for Sustainable Design!

• Darren Evans

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On this week’s episode of the Thrive in Construction podcast Darren sits down with Mark Hood, Director of Architecture at Resi, a pioneering online architectural firm with a vision to lead as the go-to marketplace for homeowners seeking sustainable architecture solutions.

Mark shares insights into Resi’s commitment to sustainable design and company growth, explaining why sustainable architecture is not only beneficial for the environment but essential for long-term success in the industry. They delve into the real-world challenges architects face when working with local authorities to implement sustainable designs and the urgent need for planning reforms to facilitate eco-friendly alternatives, like heat pumps, in construction.

Aspiring architecture students and young professionals will find Mark's advice invaluable, especially on handling adversity or negativity from peers while navigating the industry. Tune in for inspiring conversations on sustainable architecture and the future of building a greener world.
Don’t forget to subscribe for more insights on architecture and construction trends.

LINKS
Follow Darren here: https://darrenevans.komi.io/
Follow Mark here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-hood-620a17b5/
Resi: https://resi.co.uk/

Darren Evans:

So talk to me about Rezzy.

Mark Hood:

What problems do you solve? I reckon it's. Rezzy was set up because of a problem. It was our founders, jules and Alex. These are two powerhouses in the industry. They were going to extend their home and they were like who do I trust? How much do they cost? And they didn't have a clue. And they have all these different, conflicting pieces of information. They met these two architects or or designers and they're like this. Every industry has had this sort of tech approach or the standardization or this, this sort of this marketplace and set up, except for architecture mmm so they're like let's try something.

Mark Hood:

so that was about seven, eight years ago and they have built this business where we've done about 8,000 projects and within their projects, if you're our customer, we will bring to you a vetted builder, or three of them, vetted engineers and party board surveyors and drainage surveyors. The team in London, in Oval, are just fantastic, the team of architects and designers. They will make sure your planning gets approved 98% of the time because we have a planning department full of ex case officers and it's it's trying to make we sort of we've always told about like what is the purpose of residency, but it's like to make the the whole development and extension journey, or renovation journey, more pleasant, more enjoyable, more stress-free, and you will know who to trust by following our recommendations.

Darren Evans:

So it seems like a version of kind of check a trade or We'd like to say not check a trade yeah yeah.

Mark Hood:

We say our builders are. They're vetted, they're constantly vetted. They have their own platform for recommendations, like it's the better for the financials, for the recommendations from customers, for their quality. So it's like checker trade in terms of it is a marketplace, but we hold a high bar for, for quality, hold a high bar for sort of um like to make a recommendation in this industry is it's hard, as you know, um. But we've also set this business up where builders have built companies around resi, because if we are getting 150 new projects a month and we're delivering them at a high quality and they want builders, builders know that a resi project is coming around the corner.

Mark Hood:

Once I finish one, there's another one coming. I'm I've been an architect for I think like eight, nine years and I remember back in the day whenever you're on site there's an issue and everybody downstairs it's finger pointing it's not my fault, it's your fault. But now it's more collaborative. It's like what is the issue, what is the solution? It's our builders want to make sure our customers are happy, which is just a win-win for everybody. So I think it's sort of changed that whole dynamic on site um, which we are very we're obsessed with the customer, like what they want, what their needs are. So it's, it's a, it's beneficial to the customer.

Darren Evans:

So how have you engineered that then? Because in lots of areas of the construction industry, you've got opposing sides. And you have the side which is the customer and they're trying to drive price down, and they call it value engineering. And you have the builder or the construction company or the contractor that are trying to meet that brief for that really, really low price and they are then trying to make it even better on a on a price plane so that they can make, make money because margins are super tight, right. One of the reasons why I think large contractors go out of business is because of how slim their margins are. But within that there is that space which you've referred to as the finger pointing when something does go wrong, because it more often than not goes wrong, right? So how have you managed to practically alleviate that finger pointing, I'd say two things.

Mark Hood:

First of all, we have never been a race to the bottom, so we are not the cheapest. I'd say we're like mid-place in the market. And again, each of our customers will get three to four quotes and more often than not we say don't go for the cheapest. The cheapest is like they're trying to, they need work or they miss something. And we would do a free tender review call of all customers where we sort of set out the tenders across like eight or nine standardized line items. So it's we, by not focusing on, focusing on like the cheapest, you sort of set it up for success, more so in the future.

Mark Hood:

Um, and secondly, I would say that sometimes, like the no finger pointing and like the disputes on site, there's like a two different types of disputes. There's like a quite a relaxed one which is about sort of costs and finishes which we can work with them on and make sure it doesn't become a bigger thing. Or if it is a more serious dispute, that's a different question. Like the serious ones we park, because that happens and that needs to be contractual and actually understand like who's responsible. But for the ones which are, if it is value engineering. We try and do that before it gets to site. So our building regulations drawings will have everything on it. We talk to our customers about a shopping list. If you want on it for heating, put it on the drawings. If you want to cradle doors, put it on the drawings. The builders will price what's there. They price everything in front of them. So we hope more often than not the customer will have a full, probably more expensive than they can afford, and they do the value engineering before they get to site and, as a result, more often than not not having them issues when you're on site.

Mark Hood:

I say this here like it's perfect. Obviously a lot of projects it does. You can never remove disputes from sites. Yeah, things go wrong. And especially we talk to our customers about until you open up, until you dig into the ground, you don't know what's in there, you don't know what sort of pipes you're going to find. We do CCTV surveys but it could be different. So there's many caveats we prepare customers for and we try and we try I think we've learned a lot, over 8,000 projects to sort of give the customers the right information and ask the right questions before they even get decided so primarily then the, the company focuses on extensions as opposed to new build properties.

Mark Hood:

So we over the last seven years we've tried to find what are sort of our niches and right now our niche is extensions. We're doing a lot of extensions and we're bloody good at extensions. In the past I actually headed up a new build department and we found that more difficult because to do 150 extensions is not going to say easier, it's more manageable than 150 new builds.

Darren Evans:

What makes it different? So break that down. What is the difference between the two from an architect's perspective?

Mark Hood:

So we planning requirements for an extension and the planning requirements for a new build. What makes it different? So break that down. What is the difference between the two from an architect's perspective? So we planning requirements for an extension and the planning requirements for a new build are very different. Building regulations requirements for a new build and building regulations requirements for an extension very different. The timeframes as well.

Mark Hood:

Like to get a new build through planning it takes many more months than like a PD loft or PD rear extension, pd more months than like a pd loft or pd rear extension, pd primitive development. So so instead of us like we're very good at knowing what we're good at, so we're like new builds right now not for us. But we also had this outward look into the industry and we don't want to be like going up against architects. We want to be working with other companies. So we decided about two years ago to work with other practices. So if resi my team of architects and designers there's 40 of them in in brixton if they can't do it, we find somebody can.

Mark Hood:

So we work with a company called design squared and they do our noodles, they do flats, they do huge houses, they do basements, they do um art houses and it means that we know if you come to me you're like mark, I want an extension, no problem, my team, like uh reem and benny sitting beside me, they're going to do it very well. If you come to me like mark, I want to build six flats in lewisham, I'm like right, we have a partner. Like mark, I want to build six flats in lewisham, I'm like right, you have a partner. Um, they're very good at this. Look at the website. They work with resi um, there's a relationship there with that. With them, they will do it very well. And like sort of diversifying our sort of delivery has helped us deliver them very successfully and while sort of making our niche even better, you make.

Darren Evans:

You made reference to not going for the cheapest, yeah, or you're not the cheapest, yeah, why? Why is that? What's wrong with being cheap?

Mark Hood:

I would say that again. I don't bang on about this. I'm an architect. I value the profession.

Mark Hood:

I've been in companies where they don't get paid. They do do work for free. They undercut all our architects and it becomes this sort of vicious cycle and Resi are very good at getting paid. We're very chilled about it. Like, if your project costs you 3,000 pound, you're paying for installments. If you can't pay one of the installments, we pause it. We pause it for two weeks, four weeks and it means that we know that out of 140 projects we always get paid. But it means that we can be a bit more confident with the prices. It means we can pay our staff a good wage. It means we can have a nice office. It means we can focus on training. We can bring in we we can. We're currently educating all of our team in retrofitting. We're bringing suppliers.

Mark Hood:

So for me, being the cheapest means that you work weekends, you work till 9 pm. You work um. Your, your workforce are not sort of enthused about what they're doing. Um. We made the decision not to be that company and I think it's working. The team, our attrition rates are pretty good. Team love working there. Um, we've got a nice office, customers. I think we're the number one architectural company on trustpilot. Our case studies we're doing are fantastic. So it's it's trying to think about architecture a bit more like, a bit more sort of business savvy, um, and I'm confident the sort of the customers that the ultimate sort of arbiter of like, of like what, how successful we are, and they, they like it.

Darren Evans:

So it seems to work if you go back a number of years, the role of architect was definitely more prevalent. Yeah, throughout the whole process of construction. Do you think that those days will ever come back? Uh, it's a good question.

Mark Hood:

Um, I think what we are doing isn't moving us in that direction. Like we are. Definitely we trust external expertise. We vet external expertise. Like if a customer wants, um, uh, like a contract administrator, like we use one of them if you want to party, if you're a project manager, we bring in external suppliers structural engineers, drainage suppliers. We definitely we are leaning towards a sort of diverse workforce of expertise as opposed to us being the ultimate company. What I would say is we aren't going that direction, but because we are an architectural company who have formed a marketplace which is kind of rare, it's not common to see that. So maybe we aren't the doer but we are the coordinator. So we aren't doing it as architects and designers, but as a company we are. So it's kind of like a catch-22.

Darren Evans:

Seems like your business model has got rhymes to an Uber or an Airbnb, where you're bringing two parties together with the linchpin in the middle.

Mark Hood:

So we've been called Uber of architecture quite a few times, a few articles and I think about resident two ways. We've got the delivery units, which is this highly profitable, high quality unit. There's about 40 to 50 people. It's architects, technologists, designers, planners. They run, we deliver, introduced our customers to builders. We introduced customers to engineers like the teams there, like Jordan's planning team and Antoine and Ollie of the design team and Luis of the account managers like they're fantastic, this works. But we've only been able to do that by building software and the software is our product department, the product department, the product and tech team. There's about seven or eight engineers. They're fantastic. They've built other systems. We've built tools where customers can like, design their own extensions. We're currently building a tool where customers can see every extension that we've done in london, which is thousands the planning history, the designs, the 3d visuals. We're using AI. So this, like this, is to have this product team within an architecture company again, rare, but it has enabled us to do more, deliver more.

Mark Hood:

Customers love it, customers are super engaged and I think to like the uber point or the airbnb point. We are different. Because of that, we can be compared to these mammoth companies. Because of that I'd say there's no scale, our ambition, like we, we're doing about, uh I'd say, two and a half thousand projects a year. We want that to be doubled in the next year or two. Um, we've got some really exciting investors who back us to the hilt, um, so, yeah, it's uh, I I sort of part of me sort of recoils whenever I hear the uber of architecture, but I do see the reasons why it is that. Um, it does make sense and I think it's because we are trying to think about this a little bit differently the thing that I've noticed in the construction industry is that not much has changed.

Mark Hood:

Yeah, in hundreds of years, it, it has to be dragged through into the modern era kicking and screaming. I was at university not that long ago and we had big, massive boards. We had about a pencil case full of like six or seven different pens. We use 3D software called Revit. I'm sure you're aware of it. To get an architect or designer to convert to 3D software is not that easy. To get to 2D was hard enough. Convert to 3D software is not that easy. To get to 2D was hard enough. I think it's. But I also think this we moved to 3D software. It is expensive. I think the costs are prohibitive to actual progress.

Mark Hood:

We are doing a lot of work with SIPs and retrofitting. We have the ability to look at both, both sides. We've got the designers and the builders and the builders resi have 100 and something builders on our system. They are reluctant to build with sips, they're reluctant to use a heat pump, they're reluctant to put in solar panels because they have this sort of these historical sort of um inbuilt sort of misconceptions of the benefits. Like we had put a heap up in a project and then the builder would take it out. They put in a boiler. We're like guys, come on like it makes sense, but our Olivia, who's our heads of the department, is currently aggressively trying to educate the both sides, trying to educate the builders, putting sips in front of them, and we think that's the only way to do it. You can educate as many architects as you want, but if the builders take it out, then you're wasting your time. So trying to do both sides is our way of trying to drag the industry forward, kicking and screaming.

Darren Evans:

It also seems as though, from your approach, you're actually able to get more done in less time. Oh yeah, definitely, and so, just looking at the pattern of history, you go back far enough, and uh, before the industrial revolution, I think it was. The stat is somewhere around 92 percent of people involved in farming yeah there you go, where now? Not so much because of machinery, because of automation, you know what I, we?

Mark Hood:

we speak to a lot of architects and companies for various reasons. Our VP of product and design, nick Nick Eales. He spoke to an architect a few weeks ago, a few months ago, and they said they go to site to meet every customer before they pay, before they become a customer. They go to site and they design the work and out of them customers. So out of them customers about let's say, 20 become become an actual customer. So they're basically having about 80 percent of their time which is abortive and just to have a cup of tea and sit across the table and look into their eyes.

Mark Hood:

When we're really we're like I'm a customer, you don't need to go to site, we can. The world is progressed. We can have a video call and you can speak to someone and look at them in the eye. And Rick resi's you will never meet your architect with resi. You like you're sitting at home, you're busy person, you've got, you're doing the kids homework, you log on to your dashboard, do you have your video call with the team. That's how this works. It becomes much more accessible than trying to find a time in your diary where you can get across london, get from I, get from the east to west or up to newcastle and we just we've removed that sort of locational um sort of restriction and it's really opened us up to many more um customers I love that concept, even for me as a customer of yours.

Darren Evans:

If I was a customer of yours, for me to put time in my diary to get you to come round and sit down and have a big conversation and we had a marketing campaign a while ago, last year, with a really cracking marketing guy.

Mark Hood:

He's a bit loopy but we love him and it was. It was something like architects don't comfort, don't comfort II, or our architects don't come to for a cup of tea, and it caused a bit of a stir. But we're like it's right, we don't and we do, we will still get you. We'll still get you planning. We'll send your cracking design. We will still get you a great builder.

Darren Evans:

That's what matters interesting where do you see the future of this approach? Do you see this as you taking over the world, as in becoming an uber, or do you see this principle being adopted amongst more architects?

Mark Hood:

We do have some competitors and whenever we first started eight years ago, we were the first online architect. That didn't exist before and there has been some competitors. But the competitors also now work with us. So we, alex's grand ambition is we want to become the ultimate marketplace, the marketplace where you come to Resi for your imagine, like your Pinterest board, starts at Resi. You come to Resi for your initial ideas. We find you the right architect. We will always have that architectural units in Resi, like 40 to 50 architects and technologists, and we want it to be like the Petri dish of testing new ideas. Testing SIPs and retrofit and new technologies. Like that is our ambition to never lose that. But we also don't want to have a company of 500 people in Oval Brixton. For us that's too big. We want to use the marketplace where you can.

Mark Hood:

We'll find you an architect, whether it be resi or not resi. We'll find you a kitchen bathroom, an engineer, a cctv, a cctv drainage surveyor. We'll find you a builder. We actually have also. We have relationships now with velux and ibstock we have. We are moving into the material supply as well, so we're bringing discounts to our builders. If, if you want to build in brick slips come to us, we have, we speak to ibstock, or we did on a regular basis. Felix. Felix have given us a discount, their first discount ever to come to a commercial company to use. Um, so we, at the minute it's delivery, but we are more. Our ambition is not there. Our ambition is to go further, to control the material supply, and that's how we become this Uber of architecture, but not losing the sort of the core part of the business.

Darren Evans:

I love that Moving forward. I see that the companies that will succeed and thrive are going to be the ones that are able to deliver based on speed and quality, instead of just be able to deliver on quality it needs to be speed.

Mark Hood:

Yeah, do you know what we debate a lot about the sort of speed quality. Do people cost more on speed? Do they want cost? Do they want quality, quality? I guess it's the people. Customers want speed doing costs on quality and most successful businesses are you lean into one, we know you more. You always must have quality. Once you lose quality the whole the week, you've got a short-term vision, because your integrity is out the window.

Darren Evans:

You're not, you know, actually a fraud on? Yeah, you don't give quality.

Mark Hood:

Yeah, it's a short term mindset. Yes, you have a great numbers for the next month, but it'll fall. It'll fall to pieces. Yeah, um, we know speed is important for some customers, like a lot of our customers. We call them sort of the resi nesters. They've just bought a house. It's one of the, the wife's pregnant. Um, they need to get an extension to add a bedroom before this baby comes. That's when speed becomes like it's. We have a time limit here. Baby Teddy is coming any minute. Now we need to get this built and that's where it's. It's not speed to cut corners, it's speed because it matters to the family Absolutely. And then the cost piece. We, like I said before, we've made the decision not to be the cheapest, definitely not the most expensive. We're just competitive.

Darren Evans:

So, yeah, it's definitely leading into quality and speed, but I know that, as we're talking about this, people will be listening to this conversation and hearing. Speed means, like you've said, cutting corners. Poor job it's actually. That's not. The truth is yeah, it's efficiency.

Mark Hood:

It's efficiency and, like we, we know now that we can use our scale to form partnerships to help the whole process. To form partnerships to get you a better builder who can have cheaper materials. To form partnerships where we can build technology to make the process much more easier for you. So, whenever we started out, we were just this little young buck just making our way in the area, but now Velux haven't given us this discount because we are up and coming. They've given us a discount because we've done 8 000 projects. Um, and this is a.

Darren Evans:

This is the sort of step change in the company which we're how we're looking forward good and so what does this look like now for you, moving forward with this speed, this scalability, and how does that solve customers problems as well as meet demands around sustainability net zero?

Mark Hood:

do you know? I am on the way here. I was thinking like I would love to sit here and say resi have solved the housing crisis. We've solved the sort of this, the sort of the, the decarbonisation of the existing housing stock, but at the minute we haven't, and we have failed miserably, I'd say, compared to our potential. We've done 8,000 projects. We have done about 0.1% in MMC, we've done about 20% in retrofit and we really, as director of architecture, that's my responsibility, responsibility. So I've failed, but it's not for one to try. So we've now.

Mark Hood:

We are now offering free retrofit advice to all customers. We are upskilling all of our team in retrofitting. We've got a retrofit coordinator, ben, in house. We've got partnerships with Sips companies. We are speaking to green finance houses. We are speaking to housing associations about upgrading their housing stock and we have definitely failed on our potential to date, but I am so, so confident that Resi are part of the solution. Our ability to deliver. Scale is what makes us unique. So I think to date we could have done more and I wanted to be here like, yes, res, rezzy, we've done it all, but we haven't. But our investors back us because of the potential and the changes we are making, so I'm more optimistic for the future Good.

Darren Evans:

It doesn't sound like you failed. It sounds like you're growing.

Mark Hood:

I'm being harsh on myself. It sounds like you're developing. Oh, definitely, definitely. Sound like you failed. Sounds like you're growing. I'm being harsh on myself, developing. You know, definitely, definitely, and I think it's.

Mark Hood:

I actually have this like, I have this gripe with ESG. Like ESG, I back it to the hilt, I back everything about it. But I think it's become this it's been, it's been like it's been toxified by, like, these horrible people in America and like it's not like this, like, like negative word, where actually ESG should be like responsible, sustainable growth. It has to have growth in it because we haven't been able to move as quickly as we want to do, because we have to still grow as a company and for me, like it's, sustainability comes hand in hand with business growth. You have to have to work together.

Mark Hood:

At the minute, that planning is just killing us. Planning, I know planning reforms are coming, but until they're coming, we can't move as quickly as we want to. What elements of planning are killing you? You know it's interesting that there's hundreds of councils in England and we've worked with most of them literally most of them and their interpretation of the green side. I use green loosely because it's a horrible term, but you know what I mean it's all different. Every single one is different, whether it's PD or not, if they require a noise report or not, and we have to sort of react to each one.

Mark Hood:

So we're trying to standardize this whole green approach of documents and we give it to our council and they're like no, it's different. So Lewisham's different than Barnet and Barnet's different than Westminster. And we're like, guys, we need consistency. There's no way we're going to get a heat pump in 40% of our extensions if you don't give us some consistency with your communication, with your requirements, with your documents.

Mark Hood:

And we know reforms are coming, we know they're coming pretty quickly, but at the minute for a customer to have to pay 2 000 pound for a noise report, for something they're going to save about 100 pound or 200 pound a year on it, just it's killing any progress there. So that's why I mean the government. If the government are serious about planning reforms like I think we've got some inside information that angela Rayner's currently got a set of reforms at her desk Pass them, implement them all, remove the restrictions on size and the distance to the boundary and then we can actually get heat pumps into houses quicker, and then it works with our growth, then it works with us being a responsible company. So that's my internal gripe with planning an.

Darren Evans:

ESG. So with that, then, so say these reforms do come through. What impact would that have have on? Say me, as an example, if I'm living next door to someone that's gonna put a heat pump, that's, yeah, I think, really really close to my bedroom window. You know what? You know what?

Mark Hood:

we are the only country in Europe who are so restrictive and I think it, I think the complaint, the current complaints about Do you know what? We are the only country in Europe who are so restrictive, and I think the current complaints about noise heat pumps. It's like 1% or 2% of complaints to the environmental agency.

Darren Evans:

I think the nerves about sound is worse than actual sound. So what you're saying is the boogeyman under the 100%.

Mark Hood:

It's the, it's the sort of the, the negative preconceptions, but what I would say it is about quality. If you get a badly installed heat pump, it's going to sound like a flipping uh turbo engine going past your house. So it has to be qualities. We work with some cracking companies with aero, with heat geek, with veto, like these guys. They're their accreditation like they're. They're testing the post. The post installation monitoring is like the highest of the high. If you install crap, you get crap out. So it's I.

Mark Hood:

I think that's sort of this sort of the quality of installation is so important as well. Um, but basically, if these reforms come through, there won't be a restriction of how close you can be to a boundary. The size restriction will also be increased of the size of the actual unit and from what I've read and spoken to with these companies, it's not going to make much of a difference. What it will do is give confidence to our customers that they can get a heat pump under PD, they can put it wherever they want, they can install it with one of our trusted suppliers and already you're creating an environment where it's more positive, it's more the risks aren't as obvious or aren't as like daunting. I think it's just creating like a better environment to make decisions. Where it's minutes, like you can't do it too expensive, it might fail.

Darren Evans:

Planning your, your planning extension for your house may fail because they, because of a heat pump, for all them reasons, customers are like I don't want it, even though it makes sense I know that you don't directly deal with the funders that you get for the company, yeah, but I'm wondering if you are able to offer up some advice if I've got a really good idea that's going to revolutionise the construction industry and I'm struggling to get off the ground because I've just not got the capital.

Darren Evans:

What things would I need to do in order to get the attention of funders?

Mark Hood:

We always talk about the MVP. What is the most simplest thing that you can prove? The minimum, minimum viable product. So we, like, we do this all the time, like we have we, just because we're so ambitious, we can, we can live in the stars. We're like, actually, no, like, what are you trying to prove if you distill everything, get rid of all the investment that you need? You look is it? Uh, you're trying to prove a problem. You're trying to prove a problem. Speak to customers. Speak to 10 customers, 100 customers. Are they saying the same thing?

Mark Hood:

Um, can you demonstrate something by having? Yes, you need tech, yes, you need investment, but can you demonstrate something just by doing it? Like sometimes our, my ceo, alex, she says ask for forgiveness, not permission, just just do it. Let you just get out there, test it. I think it's like if you can prove the smallest thing which is going against the grain of some problem or some bigger thing, then that gets you there. Like we've.

Mark Hood:

We've built this software called Resi Ready. It's like a configurator where you basically have to design it. We basically built technology which helps you, the customer, design your extension, and it's kind of like us imagine a sketching tool, but it's actually in 3d, and you can pick your roof tiles, you can pick your reform, you can pick your extension. There's a pitch roof, flat roof, and it's amazing like investors love it.

Mark Hood:

But about two months before the software, we just looked on google maps, looked at all the extensions around the area. We could see very clearly that the loft extensions in lambeth they're all the same. I'm exaggerating from a point, but a lot of them are the same. You walk up these roads and they've got the exact same dormer extension and we would bet our house that the inside of the house is also the same. So we were able to prove to my ceo that we could standardize extensions by just spending two hours on google maps. All of a sudden she throws resource behind it and away you go. So back to my first point. Just prove the most simplest thing, prove the problem, and then the rest can become easier.

Darren Evans:

Good, where's the passion come from?

Mark Hood:

for you, for me, yeah do I come across very passionate? Absolutely, yeah, I get that a lot.

Darren Evans:

I'm like wow, you're so passionate.

Mark Hood:

Um, uh, it's a great question, so that's not a bad thing, no, it's. Yeah, yeah, do you know, I like, I love this and I think, um, I have a passion for two things. First of all, the bigger piece of the industry. I'm the worst person to be employed by. If you were my boss, you'd hate me.

Darren Evans:

Okay.

Mark Hood:

Because I'm so. I'm like I want more. I want to change this here. I've seen this problem. I want to fix it.

Mark Hood:

I'm always trying to think about what's happening in 18, 18 months or two years. Was that a problem? If I was your boss, what would I know it's a problem to like manage, okay, but I'm sure Alex, if she's listened to this I know she will be she'd be like it's great, it's like and I'll be like, speaking to you here, and many architects won't do this, many architects do, and not to any fault of their own. Like we just we're architects are, we can be quite sort of um, we're purists, we're creative, we just, we just like, we like this sort of the trade, whereas I want to. I, I knew with resi that we could do something differently, so I'm uh, I like to try and I can get impatient by just doing the same thing, um. But then, secondly, I have this like burning passion for resi.

Mark Hood:

I do believe in the mission. I believe that them 40 people in my team are fantastic, each one of them, like antoine and ollie, at the top, ben ream and benny believe them, and beneath them, 25 more people like they are fantastic, what they do, I think, to try and find architects and technologists and designers who are willing to sort of go with you in this journey and try and do things a bit differently. It's not easy and there's like I would say. We are by no means perfect, but we try and get a good work-life balance for these guys. We try and work nine to six, we try and educate them in new technologies. So it's like, I guess, when you combine, you back the team, you back the company and also you want to do more, it becomes this.

Darren Evans:

So what did this passion come before that, though? Because that you must have had passion there in something. Yeah, for resi, because it seems like to me that resi has shown up and there's been a match made in heaven, because they are giving you an outlet for the thing that's inside you. Yeah, but where did this thing, this passion inside you, come from?

Mark Hood:

it's a great question, I think I actually think it's. It's been there. If I go back even further, I'd say it's. It's came from being told that you can't do it. Like I sitting here. People would be surprised that I'm sitting here because I've got a stammer, I mumble, I've got this thick Irish accent and they're like wait a minute, you're not doing a podcast with Darren Evans. Like that's, that's mental.

Mark Hood:

And I think people telling you you can't do something makes you like no, like two fingers up to you, I'm gonna do this.

Mark Hood:

And I that's made me always want to like disprove preconceptions of like my sort of scope of my ability and I'd say, like any I know on this podcast you've got students and CEOs and architects and designers and design managers like the students who really want to like if I could sit here and speak to you, there's no limit to their ambition and there shouldn't be any limit to their ambition because you just have to put yourself out there.

Mark Hood:

I actually last week at resi, I done a public speaking course for this, for the team, and I said, guys like I assure you, if'm doing this, you can do it too. And you have these people who are like nodding to you and they're like yes, I feel like I can. I'm like this is the greatest meeting I've ever had. So I think, yeah, I think it's disproving other people's preconceptions. And all of a sudden you're sitting here and you put yourself in the deep end. You put yourself in difficult positions and all of a sudden you're director of architecture at Resi, managing 35 fantastic designers and architects, and the trajectory of the company is only going up.

Darren Evans:

Well, I reckon we're now about ready to go to the demolition zone. Sounds great. You ready? Yep, let's do it. We are now in the demolition zone. Yes, and you've created these two towers. Um, the red tower is slightly larger than the green tower. Yeah, but you've been very selective with the color of bricks.

Mark Hood:

I have indeed, and I hope I'm not judged by my sort of construction abilities.

Darren Evans:

Here everybody judges you, yeah, but it doesn't mean my team at home, please, uh, please bear with me.

Mark Hood:

See, this is I. I really have this um, this uh impact the planning has on our ability to deliver true decarbonization. It's, it's, it really is hampering us again. I know there's reforms coming, but for me the can't come quick enough. Um, if it don't come, it's it's just the up heat pumps and batteries and solar and external wall insulation and building and SIPs construction. It's just, it's not going to happen quick enough. So you've got our green is trying to come through, but the sort of the red planning, restrictions, the red tape and planning, it's, it's impacting it that is good.

Darren Evans:

How, um? How specifically does it, does it impact? And I know that we've covered some bits in the conversation around heat pumps yeah, um, but can you talk through the specific issues that it brings? Yeah, okay.

Mark Hood:

So we tried to put external wall insulation around the building and and add an extension, because the external wall insulation was rejected, the extension then was rejected. So customers are they fear the restrictions on the green stuff the green crap, as they call it is going to impact their, the extension which they need for their growing family, for to watch their children do their homework whenever they're in the kitchen, to add that indispensable bedroom. If these family, like key areas, are in any way at risk, the green crop doesn't happen and we want the green crop, we care about the green crop, but it's, it's the sort of the negative, uh, if there's a little bit of risk in your belly, you won't do it. So I think it's's, it's the sort of the negative, uh, if there's a little bit of risk in your belly, you won't do it. So I think it's like it's the environment which it which it um, uh, which it's uh, promoting, like this negative environment, but also like the planners are.

Mark Hood:

So I feel so bad for them. They're the busiest people, they're working horrible hours, not paid enough. They're, they're sort of um, the local authorities planners that they are not. They're overstretched and to to make them have to check this stuff whenever it should just be self-certified and go straight through. You're just killing the whole system. So make it self-certified, make it PD, make it fly through. Everyone will be happier and it will make the customers not fear that their extension for their new child coming is going to be rejected by putting in a heat pump or a solar panel or wall insulation.

Darren Evans:

Well, what? Do you go ahead and destroy the myth? Happily right, jab, that felt good. That felt really good. Yeah, that's good.

Darren Evans:

I love that, as as I'm sat here listening to you uh talk about the restrictions with planning, it seems as though to me that the real issue that you're talking about here is the uncertainty that exists when you, as an architect or someone that's trying to help a customer plan and execute on an extension, find it really, really difficult to give certainty to your client yeah and your client finds it really, really difficult to feel that certainty, either from you or from anyone else, because it feels like you're throwing stuff to the wind and whichever way is blowing, it could land in that way, so it seems like it's a certainty, issue 100 and I think I think it's more obvious to us because we've got like a 98% approval rate we can give you confidence of an approval for an extension, a loft extension or a two-story rear.

Mark Hood:

Obviously there's always risk in planning but we can give you confidence. But then if we then sort of prefix that with the heat pump you may not need a sound report, it should be fine. We think you should include this. It shouldn't be invalid, invalid but it becomes invalid. That sort of that sort of uncertainty, it just um, it hampers the progress there. But if we were able to say your rear extension will be approved for the heat pump it is pd, we can go up to the boundary, it needs to be this size, you don't need a sound report or sound engineer, then it becomes this like really tight um recommendation and that's what we're after yeah, I like that.

Darren Evans:

So the the analogy that I've got in my mind at the moment is everyone loves a roller coaster. Well, maybe not everyone, but people love a roller coaster because you have the balance of certainty versus excitement and fear, so you can be afraid but be safe at the same time, because you know that someone's tested it, there's been a system and a process that's gone through. That means that you're not going to lose your life or become seriously injured, and so I think that that same process is, if that was overlaid, in the construction industry. We're going to have ups and downs, but there is actually this certainty here because there is this agreed-on, well-formulated process that is applicable in every single borough, not just within London, but also within the UK. It would just make the ride more enjoyable.

Mark Hood:

And that is literally our, that is our whole ethos about like making this, this renovation journey, stress-free so you can enjoy the ride like we. It's why we, we come to work. It's like take the sort of stress and the fear out of extending your, extending your home because, make no bones about it, if you want to open up the back of your house and make a massive hole in your, you want to open up the back of your house and make a massive hole in your house and you've got a young child coming, you're gonna be just gonna be nerve, it's gonna be nerve-wracking, but if we can sort of take out that stress and make it more enjoyable, um, I think it's a job well done so have you thought about coming up with software for the local authority so it makes their life easier?

Mark Hood:

so we actually have worked because we, resi, are the second biggest user of the planning portal. I think the first is a win. Like a doors company or Windows company, but we we speak to them. We speak to them on a regular occurrence. They we talked to them about software. They've been in our company, so we haven't built anything yet. What I would say is like we councils know our drawings. Now councils know what they receive.

Darren Evans:

So you've got reputation now.

Mark Hood:

Yeah, exactly.

Darren Evans:

When they see the Resi mark.

Mark Hood:

It's the same set up, the same drawings. We know all of the requirements. Each council is different, which makes it difficult. So I think, uh, it's definitely something which we have sort of flirted with and we have a good dialogue with these, with with consoles, with a good dialogue, dialogue with planning portal. We actually have a good dialogue with labor as well. We are sort of we um our ceo, alex she opened for rachel reeves at the labor pop, at labor labour conference a few weeks ago. So we try and be proactive in these circles to try and improve the industry. I think sometimes it's hard. We've ambitions to try and be leaders in the sort of the upgrade of housing associations, their portfolio of housing. It's something we're actively speaking to companies about. So, yeah, yeah, we do have ambitions to deal with these bigger enterprises. But, um, it's sometimes it can be like we're a speedboat and they're a tanker. We're like nipping around them and they're like they've got the foghorn going pretty slowly.

Darren Evans:

So, um, but we're pretty sure we can, we can change course mark, it's been great speaking to you today and to you, and I'm wondering is there anything that you wanted to cover or talk about, but that you feel that you've not had the opportunity to?

Mark Hood:

I think we've covered a lot. It's been great I do back Rezzy being part of the solution. I think our ability to match scale with technology, our ability to engage with local government, with government, with housing associations it's unique. We will be the answer to part of this decarbonisation of the existing stock. We know that the existing stock people are unhappy in their homes because of the condition of them they're leaking, they can't afford to move their homes because of the condition of them they're leaking, they can't afford to move. And once we can sort of hit true scale, um, I'm super excited and uh, yeah, I think you'll see a lot more coming months and years am I right in thinking that you've got either a pending deal or a deal with rightmove?

Mark Hood:

yeah, we've got. We currently have. If you go on rightmove's website, you will see resi. Um, we are. It's a valuation calculator, so we help customers a right move understand what they could do with their property. This is one of our potential big partnerships. It's a. They are excited by us, we're excited by them. It's a boy them. That's sort of organic traffic. Come to what resi. It's fantastic. It's another sort of sign of like these big corporations buying into Resi and what we're doing. So, yeah, another exciting partnership Good.

Darren Evans:

Just thinking of a final thought. Yep, final thought for those that are listening If they could just do one thing and take one thing out of this conversation, what would it be?

Mark Hood:

I would say, if you're a homeowner and you can't afford to move, your house is leaking. You're, you're putting your kids, the kids to bed of a hot water bottle, you're cooking the dinner and you feel this sort of draft in the back of your neck. You've always felt like you're. It's uh, you're sort of constrained by the house. Speak to us, like our team, who are sort of first team you'll speak to, are unbelievable. I'll let you know the potential of your house. Let me know what you do for retrofitting, let you know what you do with um, new energy sources, with solar panels and batteries.

Mark Hood:

So, like resi's website, resicouk is full of useful information with blogs and technology and our numbers. So get in touch. You don't have to move, you can, you can improve the house you're in. You're in. It can be an extension, or it can be solar panels, or it can be a heat pump, or it can be glazing, and I think uh, resi will make it more accessible, hopefully a bit more exciting, um, and the first step to finding out becomes a little bit easier. Thank you very much. Good man, good to speak. Yeah, take care. Thanks a lot.