Building The Dream
Welcome to Building the Dream, the podcast for anyone passionate about property, construction, and the real stories behind creating amazing spaces.
This show is for everyone: industry veterans with decades of experience, newcomers planning their first build, designers, tradespeople, architects, investors, hotel owners, and anyone fascinated by the world of property. We go way beyond glossy photos and marketing jargon. Here, you’ll hear the truth: the wins, the failures, the lessons learned the hard way, and the stories nobody else is telling.
Each episode, we bring together honest voices from across the construction industry, sharing their journeys, expertise, and the trials and tribulations they’ve faced along the way. From design and energy, to finance, renting, sustainability, and what it’s really like to bring a vision to life, Building the Dream covers it all, whether you’re working on a family home or a five-star hotel we hope this podcast gives you value.
This is my passion project, and a space i have created for open, authentic conversations and real education. I want you to feel inspired, informed, and never alone in your journey.
Every episode tells a story and delivers value, giving you insights you won’t find in textbooks or sales pitches.
Episodes drop fortnightly on Tuesdays, featuring special guests from every corner of the industry.
So whether you’re in the trade, thinking of starting a project, or just love a good story about building something extraordinary, you belong here.
Building The Dream
From Pinterest to Planning Permission – Building It Right with Fresh Architects
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of Building the Dream, Ashley sits down with George and Maria from Fresh Architects — the design duo known for turning bold ideas into beautiful, buildable homes.
We talk about:
- How to find the right architect for your project
- What planning permission is really like
- Why most budgets are way off (and how to fix that)
- How to balance Pinterest dreams with practical design
- The power of phasing, smart glazing, and future-proofing
- Real stories of beachfront builds, sunken lounges, and car lifts
Whether you’re building a house, renovating your forever home, or just dream-scrolling Pinterest — this episode will change how you think about architecture, planning, and design.
🏡 Learn how to build smarter, not just bigger.
🔧 Get real tips from architects who actually do the work.
🎧 Listen now, and make your dream home a reality.
🔗 Explore Fresh Architects: www.fresharchitects.co.uk
📲 Follow @aurasurfaces for more episodes like this
#architecture #fresharchitects #dreamhome #selfbuild #homeinspo #planningpermission #budgetbuild #modernhomes #buildingpodcast #interiordesign #constructionuk
Meeting Fresh Architects
Speaker 1Today on Buildin' the Dream , I'm joined by the fantastic George and Maria from Fresh Architects . Now , I've followed this company for about three or four years on their socials and absolutely love what they do , so it only felt right to get them into a podcast and learn more about them and what they do . So welcome George , Welcome Maria to Buildin' the Dream .
Speaker 2Thank you very much .
Speaker 1How are we both doing today ?
Speaker 2Good , good , good , very good , thank you , How's things Busy ? Very busy .
Speaker 1Very busy . To be fair , it's been hard to get you both down , to drag you both down and do this . So how did you guys meet ? Tell us a little bit of an introduction into Fresh Architects and how you guys met .
Speaker 2So we used to work for other companies , much larger practices , working in London and everywhere else in the country . That's how we met . We're both fully qualified architects . That's literally how we met working for somebody else , but we always knew that we wanted to create our own company .
Speaker 3Yeah , and then about five and a half years ago now , wasn't it ?
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 3We started up fresh . We started during quite a busy time , obviously it was , it was covid , um . So yeah , it was crazy , probably like the wrong time to start . You'd think so anyway , but then the phone literally just did not stop ringing . I think everyone was kind of stuck in their houses , um , looking around , thinking they needed more space . You know , everyone was all in the house all at once and they needed extra places to work , extra space for the kids , things like that .
Speaker 1So yeah , and people had too much money . Yeah , exactly , people had too much money . I would say you're sort of known for clean-lined , future-focused designs . Very contemporary , you do a lot of sort of beachfront properties that look absolutely amazing . What sort of led you guys to that ? Is it your clients ? Is that something you really enjoy doing ?
Speaker 2I think naturally we both love the contemporary look like the clean crisps lines and making things quite contemporary um , it also have an impact . What the clients want . Sometimes they want to be really contemporary and then it's when we get the most excitement out of the project . Other times they want to be a bit more traditional , more in keeping with the roads , which we can also work with .
Speaker 3But what we really enjoy doing is um the contemporary personally at least yeah me , yeah , it's important for us to be able to do both , obviously because there's a massive market for like the traditional as well . Like you come into kind of where we are now , you know like the more kind of rural setting um , and sometimes those those modern things just don't fly with the council or kind of like the local community and things like that . But yeah , I think the ones we enjoy are the kind of high-tech , modern beachfront style properties . Yeah .
Speaker 1So have you ever come across a ? Imagine a nice traditional row of houses and then someone wants to put a modern beachfront villa right , smack bang in the middle of that . How does that work ? How does that look ?
Speaker 3Well , someone has to start , so someone has to be the first one . If's going to happen , then maybe you know I'm thinking of kind of a road that we work on quite regularly in east preston . Um , there's quite a few kind of private estates down there and they were kind of built , um , several decades ago , you know when , when the construction wasn't so , wasn't so great , and , yeah , they've been kind of flattened now and these beachfront properties are coming up and they're three stories and what was there before was like a single story bungalow . But yeah , someone's got to start .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's , very true .
Speaker 2Yeah , you need to look at the wider context as well and then see whether you can get precedence from even if they seem impossible . There is always something that you can say this house was built with this kind of flat roof over here and that and put some things together to get you to your end goal .
Speaker 1So there is a way to do everything . There is , yes , Almost . Have you ever had a project where it didn't , for whatever reason ? You couldn't quite do what you wanted to do .
Speaker 3I think we just have to adapt . Yeah , it might be that they say certain elements you know like you need to reduce the height of the ridge , and then we don't always kind of just give into it . We'll say , all right , yeah , we'll reduce the size of the ridge if you let us go a little bit more out the side .
Speaker 2So , yeah , it's a bit of kind of negotiation . Yeah , I think the clients always know that we're pushing the boundaries .
Speaker 1So they know that there might be a little bit of do that going back to do you think your reputation of building these amazing looking houses really helps when it comes to , when it comes to getting the planning for the kites ?
Speaker 2I think so . I mean we've got touch everything We've got a hundred percent planning approvals . Record of planning approvals . We've never got a refusal in any of our obligations but I think you can tell because you can see that we push the boundaries . Some people , some of the architects , might just do really contemporary .
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 2Sorry , really traditional builds .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah .
Speaker 2Always kind of the same , whilst we try to keep it like really a wide variety of building .
Speaker 3Yeah , it's an interesting question . Do you mean from the council ?
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean like if I'm just wondering obviously I'm not in this world I'm wondering if , say , I was a client and I was choosing an architect , if an architect's success rate in that local area is quite high , it might then say , okay , they're the right people for me , or I might have tried an architect and they're not quite aligned with that local council . Does that make sense ?
Speaker 3Yeah , it's interesting because , like the council , they're really subjective , even though they shouldn't be . It should be like an objective process , but we find that it depends who's dealing with the case . From the council , obviously , as we've done more and more applications , we kind of get to know who's working there . So , yeah , we sometimes someone from the council might pop up and we'll be like , oh no , we might get someone else , sometimes someone from the council might pop up and we'll be like , oh no , it's going to be a nightmare .
Speaker 3We might get someone else who's a little bit more pro-development and yeah , they'll say it's subjective all day long , but it's definitely some subjectivity to it .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean , and obviously the government are saying we're relaxing planning , we're relaxing planning . Have you noticed that ? Are they actually relaxing planning , do you feel ?
Speaker 2I would say no , I haven't really noticed anything like that , other than they're getting
Contemporary Design and Planning Challenges
Speaker 2slower and slower at giving us responses and collaborating with us on the projects and being responsive . If anything , things are getting busier and they have less resource . But I don't think there is .
Speaker 3I know it's always in the news , but I don't think that it really affects what we're submitting day to day yeah , that's our sort of level that I'd say when you start getting a getting towards like 300 new homes and stuff that they've been kind of plonked on yeah they just signed that one off straight away , just straight away .
Speaker 2See you later . Yeah , I'm seeing that more and more , actually in the news .
Speaker 3They're saying like oh , 200 objections , local objections , approved straight away . But then we can't get like sometimes , you know , you struggle to get a small extension .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's been really well considered and stuff , yeah , extension on the side , well considered and stuff .
Speaker 2Yeah , it's got to be tough , isn't it ? It's got to be tough and there is some stuff .
Speaker 1It doesn't make sense really . Yeah , again , though it's probably I don't want to get political or podcast , but it's probably if someone's building 300 houses , the local council like , well , that's going to increase the numbers for us . 300 houses , happy days , but yeah . But we're not talking about big developments . We're talking about beautiful homes that you guys help clients create . Um , so this might be a tough one . It might be a really easy one . What is the first thing that you would ask a new client , someone that's approached you guys that want help with , let's say , a whole build ? What's sort of the first sort of steps , the first thing you would like to know from the client ?
Speaker 2I think I think I really would like to know what's driving the project for the client to really understand well what they want to achieve . So there are some people might say my house is really dark and I want to really transform it to have a really bright house flooded with natural light . Or someone might say I shade the views in my house and I really want to improve the view out . So I think that kind of question like what is driving you to pick up the phone and ring us ? There must be one main reason that I think it's good to get it .
Speaker 1Quite interesting . That's quite interesting .
Speaker 3I thought it would have been about budgets and things so what are the steps ?
Speaker 1how do you guys turn someone's like dream pinterest board mood board ? I'd imagine a lot of your clients have been planning this for years . I'd imagine they've got all these wacky and wild ideas . How do you then turn that from like a pinterest mood board to a real thing ? How does that process look , and is it difficult ? Is it easy ? I guess it depends on the client .
Speaker 3Yeah , so we go kind of like brief , which is kind of what maria was saying um , that's like the pinterest board side of things . They're like yeah , I want a infinity pool at the back or on , you know , a gym in the basement , all of these sorts of things , um , and then , yeah , we just kind of take it forwards . The budget kind of aligns with those expectations and , and if it doesn't , that's when we've got the first kind of challenge really , and we need to tell them , you know , either to take it down a little bit or yeah .
Speaker 3It's where we can kind of push it with the budget . It usually goes the other way yeah .
Speaker 2I think we always start with ideas first . You don't just start with how much money have you got for this project , but then it's closely followed by the budget , because it really makes a huge difference . If the budget is there , then the project can be beautiful .
Speaker 1Yeah , I guess it's probably quite an awkward conversation to have sometimes , isn't it ? Because you guys know what you ? You know how much an infinity pool costs , with everything , all the bells and whistles and a pool house and stuff . You know what that costs , whereas someone might . I'm in googling swimming pool , swimming pool , and it's come up and it's again . This is why I like doing this podcast , because there is you don't know where to go . There's so much noise , so much . We call it in what I do , surface blindness . Customers come to us they've looked at a thousand different things on Pinterest and the internet and they're like , yeah , surface blind , they don't know what they're doing . I'd imagine it's very similar in your industry . They're sort of design blind .
Speaker 2Yeah , they Google too much , I think , and it would be better if they approach people to find out cost , realistic cost , in the local area where you are , because it changes massively . Some people might be googling something and finding out how much something costs , but maybe it's up north and it's very different to first line by the sea yeah , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1And I suppose and are there , you do a lot of projects on the beach , seafront , from what I've seen um , does that come with its own challenges , building on the seafront with terms of water .
Speaker 3Yeah , the seesaw you get , you get hit with the prevailing winds . I mean , the products are so important for , for the exterior , um , we use a lot of like white render , which is not kind of , yeah , cohesive with the beach environment . But , yeah , you have to , you have to get the right products . So important , similar with , like the doors um , like , we've had a situation . We've turned up to a house before um that we were going to be working on luckily , not one that we'd worked on , um , but they'd had sliding doors installed and the wind is so bad down there that it's actually moving the glass really . So the glass moves in and the door's leaking . So the door's in fine , but the actual glass is being pushed in so hard that the doors are leaking . So , yeah , everything needs to be considered like hurricane-proof doors . You need your silicon renders with all the warranties and guarantees behind them .
Speaker 1Yeah , because salt water can make a beautiful house look not very beautiful in a very short space , very short space .
Speaker 2It's the same with the heat , though um like those properties have , like the sun yeah overheating them .
Speaker 1So yeah , it's a lot to consider so do you guys get get involved a lot in like renewable energy , um passive houses and stuff like that . Is that something that you guys get involved with ?
Speaker 2Yeah , we do , we like it and we like to educate , like you say , our clients into what they are going to need in the future , not just what looks nice , but what is going to make your house work well .
Speaker 1Yeah , I think it's really important in this day and age . Correct me if I'm wrong , because you know this better than me , but to future-proof things . It's all good and well . People spend in what people spend a million pound , two million pound building these beautiful houses , but they shouldn't really be . They should be looking into how they can future-proof it . Do they need to be passive ? Do they need to be sealed , heating , cooling ? A friend of mine built a house beautiful , 150 mil insulation , triple glazing , air source , under full heat throughout , and in the summer it's just too hot . It just gets too hot because it holds everything , and I suppose it's important to have someone on your side that understands this when it comes to designing your home .
Speaker 3It's something we're being requested , yeah , more and more by clients and they want , like your , air source heat pumps , and not just to , not just for the heating , but also for the cooling , like you say it's so important . Um , for those four or five days a year that we get boiling .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , we've been quite lucky this summer .
Speaker 3I don't think we've had about eight days where I wish I had air gone yeah , um , but no , yeah , we're always looking to put in , like , where we can , where budget allows , where the client wants it . You know , we're looking to put in things like your green roofs , um , your your inset solar panels , um , all combined together . When they all link up , that's when , yeah , that's when it starts to work really well . And we've got some clients who actually , oh , they've got these big houses and their bills are zero or less than zero , actually selling , selling energy back to the grid , which is amazing .
Speaker 1Yeah , so what's the thing behind green roofs ? What is a green roof ?
Speaker 3well , you've got different levels , um . So you've got like the kind of seed and finish which is like your thinnest build up , probably the cheapest of the green roofs , right up to something like a blue roof , um , which is where
Client Relationships and Budget Realities
Speaker 3you kind of it's almost like a holding load of water as well . So that's , that's part of the purpose of it . So , um , yeah , it slows down the drainage , um . So if you've got a site that's kind of heavily concreted or heavily paved , um , the green roofs can kind of slow that drainage down , um , just because it kind of permeates through the green . Then you've usually got like an egg crate kind of system , yeah , and then attenuates the water and slowly releases it into the , into the drainage system , um . But yeah , visually you've got all these different varieties . You've got like a kind of short seed and type right up to like an intensive kind of wildflower right up to can get up to like half a metre kind of thick stuff so what about ?
Speaker 1does that help with sort of insulation ?
Speaker 3Yeah , massively , massively .
Speaker 1Sorry . The only reason I'm asking is because I've seen it a lot and I have no idea whether it was literally just aesthetic or whether there were severe benefits of having green roofs .
Speaker 3That's why I know there are huge benefits .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah the aesthetic is also quite important , like it's not the same to look out the window and see like a massive expanse of a flat roof and just seeing like a green roof , which is much nicer . Everything kind of works together . I mean , where possible we do things like that that look nice and pleased to the eye , where not possible , then we try to hide it . So when the equipment gets like those hip palms and things like that are not like so pretty , then we try to hide them as much as we can .
Speaker 1Yeah , and also does that help ? Would that , then ? We try to hide them as much as we can ? Yeah , and also does that help ? Would that help with like a plan and if you was having a big aspect of the ?
Speaker 2roof was going to be a green roof . Would that be something to consider ? Yeah , it can do , it can't , but it won't be just only that . They will still have to different bits , little little .
Speaker 1Oh what if we put , if we move that , get rid of that ? Horrible , yeah , yeah yeah , what are some of the most exciting or unusual requests you think you've worked with ?
Speaker 3we've had a car lift , okay , car lift , we yeah , that's , that was a nice one to like a basement garage , um , which is , yeah , really cool . So this car lift that you yeah , you can basically comes up out the ground like that so it's invisible when you kind of first turn up .
Speaker 3Apart from just a little , square yeah a little kind of rectangle in the driveway , um , and then , yeah , it comes up and you drive your car in , um , and then it , yeah , you kind of press a button and it just drops you down . But the other good thing about it is that you could have a car on top , so you could have like a range rover on top of this thing .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 3It will literally pick up the Range Rover . You can drive in underneath it and then it will take you down and you can drive straight into your garage .
Speaker 1Oh , really . Oh , that's cool . So not just like a box with a two car thing on it , but that literally goes into the basement . That's quite cool . What about you ? Anything that jumps out ?
Speaker 2Yeah , I was thinking about one that is now built . They ask for a massive sunken area with a really high ceiling and then floating a stair bungle in the middle which we felt like like right above the sunken area . Perhaps I'd never thought about just because of the cost and everything else that's involved with it , like you're raising the distance you know for the stair to be supported and everything .
Speaker 1So yeah , it is amazing what can be done with a bit of ingenuity and a bit of and I guess it's probably quite exciting for you guys If a client comes to you with a bit of a challenge . If you're anything like me , I enjoy a challenge because it's what we get out for , and every day is a school day . Oh , can we do that like the lift ? I bet the lift was like a okay , how are we going to do this ? And then you , you make it work that's exactly what we like , really like .
Speaker 2We'll get more excited about all of that than someone who just wants like a simple , real extension , which we do as well .
Speaker 1But yeah , let's talk about where do you find that people mostly sort of misjudge the budget ? Where does it tend to go off kilter the most ?
Speaker 3I'd say it's right , right at the start , like when they come up we say , okay , so this is , go through the brief , this is what you want . Um , these are all the factors you want us to consider . What's your budget ? That figure that comes back is usually way off .
Speaker 1So how do you overcome that then ? Is that a case of using your expertise to sort of bring them back down to earth a little bit and say well , we can do this and this . What are the most ? I would imagine you find yourself right . You've got 15 things on your list here . What are the top seven ?
Speaker 2Yes , that's the thing . We have to do it , even if that means we lose the project . We have to do it . We have to bring them back down to how much things cost . Some people are going to just be surprised . They don't even know how much a big sliding door costs , and if you don't know that , it's impossible for you to know what a huge project is going to cost . If they really need to think about it , and we always ask them to prioritize , so when that happens , we say , okay , so we've discussed all of this , what is you must have , and then the others will achieve in a different way rather than in the top quality one might be the actual size of it as well .
Speaker 2You know like so if we're doing an extension and they want like a full wraparound .
Speaker 3We've had it before where they want like a two-story wraparound , um , and we've had to go and kind of say , you know , you need to maybe lose the entire side if you want to achieve this , yeah , um , so it's a difficult conversation , but it's one that they're obviously all grateful for in the end . It's a bit of a shock at the start and , and I think , half the time they don't . They don't even believe us still . Yeah , we're still . We're in that position of trust where they've asked us to come and visit their home and give us like our experience and our expertise , and then we say we think it's probably going to cost you , rather than 500 000 , closer to a million pound if you want to achieve this . It's like it's almost like no way .
Speaker 3But , even I feel like that from like an outside perspective . If I was them , I put myself in their shoes . I think if someone was coming to me and telling me it was going to be a million rather than 500,000 , I'd be like , yeah , no chance . But then once you start breaking it all down and working through it , yeah , yeah , I guess there's a lot of things like insulation .
Speaker 1There are so many things that people don't really even digouts .
Speaker 2Yeah , they want to think about it Even just digging out .
Speaker 1A friend of mine was they were doing a wraparound extension . They thought they had everything sorted . Paul , if you're listening , I'm sorry , mate . He had a big wraparound extension and then they decided they're putting an Airbnb in the garden , so they wanted a swimming pool that could be shared by the house and Airbnb . He started digging and then the neighbour's garden collapsed , had to then pile between his hire a 12-tonne excavator to pile between his garden and that , obviously , all the dirt that's fallen in had to be dug out .
Speaker 1So the dig out costs and then the concrete costs to do this pole just wiped up half the budget to build the actual extension . So there's all sorts of things that can happen that you don't . We find it where people are . Yeah , we need tiles , we need surface coverings , but our budget's gone because everything's gone behind the walls , everything's gone in the electrics , the insulation and the scree . Getting rid of dirt . It's um , it is . It's the thing that it's important for people , I think , to understand , because I guess it's difficult , because they have their dreams set and they come to you and then you're almost like telling them that father christmas isn't real . I'd imagine it can be very difficult at times .
Speaker 2They just need to know how to split their budget , Like if they had a better understanding of how much things cost , then they could split it . If someone loves the garden design , they need to know that from the very beginning .
Speaker 3Otherwise , chances are with the budget it's going to be eating into the build and then by the time you went to your garden you've run out of money that's another way we approach it sometimes , I mean with phasing and stuff so we might say , um , yeah , maybe that that would be good enough for like shell , get it to a shell stage , get it watertight um , and then kind of , yeah , take stock and reconsider , like how much money you've got left at that time . Maybe over the period of like a year's build , you've saved up a bit more and you can start thinking about the cost of finishes and things like that , where they actually want to spend the money , because that's what they end up seeing every day .
Speaker 1So , yeah , so how do you guys work then ? If I , for example , I've come to you , I have got a , I want a champagne house , but I've got a Lambrini budget , how do we ascertain that ? I phoned you up for example Hi guys , yeah , this is what I want . Do you then have like a meeting with the client and work out whether they're one is the right build for you and whether you can help them and whether their budget's right ? Do you do that before it sort of goes a bit too deep ?
Speaker 2yeah , absolutely . We need to meet the client . It's not just about selecting an architect . We need to get on really well . It's all about the relationship as well . It's not just the responsibility and qualifications . It's very important for us . We want to enjoy working with you as much as you enjoy working with us . So at that point , once you see that you can click and connect and you can work well , because the praise might be up to a couple of years .
Speaker 3It's a long-term relationship , for sure . Yeah , yeah , I can imagine .
Speaker 2And we take it really seriously . For us is someone who we can end up being friends with and go out for a drink , rather than someone that would just do the prayer for you and then that's it like . We really want to understand what you want , understand the feelings , understand everything and then be tactical and careful how things can be achieved . I mean , obviously it's unrealistic that someone's going to come with a huge expectation and a tiny budget . It does happen sometimes , but it is unrealistic More often than not . We would just need to tweak things around .
Speaker 1Like you said before , there's a work , like there is with planning . There's a workaround . You might not be able to have that glass face , but we can do this and do that . I guess it's the same with budget , yeah , so
Smart Investments in Home Design
Speaker 1every project is so personal for us as well .
Speaker 3We take it all really personally , don't we ? Everything ?
Speaker 2We do .
Speaker 3Usually it's for like a nice family or a nice couple who are trying to build their future home , dream home . Like I said , it's like a once-in-a-lifetime thing for most people , so it's really important . So , yeah , that that initial conversation .
Speaker 2We would , yeah , if you had a I don't know .
Speaker 3Yeah , I don't know what drink you reference , but I would tell you , I would say you had yeah like a beer budget yeah yeah , straight up .
Speaker 1Yeah , but I think that's really important and that's why I asked the question . I think it's really important because I'd imagine that I'd imagine there's people that don't have the same don't have . I bet it's really important because I'd imagine that I'd imagine there's people that don't have the same don't have . I bet it's quite emotional . I bet it's . You guys are emotionally involved in this project and you want to see it through as much as the client . Like you say , you're going out for dinner with them .
Speaker 1I love stories like that . I spoke to a builder's day . They did a real , they did a beautiful project for a client and I said , oh , did he ever ? He was South Africa , so that was a barbecue . I said did he ever ? Yeah , all the lads went around for a barbecue , just around big barbecue . I love stories like that at the end of the projects and that's sort of why I moved into what I do . Before , when I was in retail , we were loading stuff in the boot of someone's car and it was disappearing and we'd never see it again , whereas I like clients coming to me and it's probably very similar to you .
Speaker 1What's the vision ? How do you want to feel when you enter that room , and that's sort of where I'm going down , and I guess it does align very much with what you're doing . However , you're in charge of the whole thing , not just the bathroom or a kitchen . So how do you keep a sense of luxury and impact , even when you've sort of value engineering stuff , when you , when the clients come to you , you've picked , they've got 15 items you've managed to do 10 with , though with the last five items , sort of ? How do you , how do you still give that luxurious feel , but obviously you're stuck with the budget ? How does that sort of turn ?
Speaker 3out . I think it's important to push like the right elements . Maybe there's like one key feature like you could , maybe they pick like a window seat , or it's like the external cladding or something that gives you that wow . But there doesn't necessarily need to be like five things that give you that wow . If they can get two or three , then that's usually good enough to to have a big impact .
Speaker 2So yeah , and then we , as george said before , we try to face it if we need to , so for you to get to the best result that you could . If we need to tell you it's better for you to face it , then we would . And then you know we wouldn't make the clients compromising things like a structure and the shell and things that cannot be taken down easily . But maybe those amazing finishes can come like a few months later , once they've got time to maybe recover a little bit from everything that's happening and just do it properly . So we'd rather have the conversation and say to them pay attention to time scales , from rushing too much into a few things at the very beginning , eating all the bad dirt and then what happens .
Speaker 1So I guess things like a kitchen . Instead of buying that bespoke , handmade beautiful kitchen for x amount , they could put something in temporary that still looks good and in the aims of a year , two years time time to change it and then searching loads for local companies that they do .
Speaker 2There is a lot of options Like . The market is huge these days and you can find really nice things that are maybe not that costly .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah .
Speaker 2So everyone's got different ranges . They've got like the top one and the one . That isn't such as the top one , but it's quite good .
Speaker 1And I think by shopping independently at independent local companies , they will be able to offer you more value based on a project . There might be that your doors from a local company they're not an independent , they're not governed by the big boss sitting somewhere and they can offer you a slightly better rate based on the project . But yeah , it's probably a very important thing , isn't it ? Budget I'd imagine you come up against it it's key really for every single project and everything we can get carried away as well .
Speaker 2We can say to someone but you've got this budget , and then they are during the . They might be like , but can you add this and that ? And it's like we need to keep reminding them yes , but this was your budget . We can add it if you want to .
Speaker 3If the budget's changed since we last spoke .
Speaker 1I mean . But the thing is though , you watch . I mean you watch Grand Designs , you watch all these programs .
Speaker 3I don't think I've ever seen one where they didn't go over budget ?
Speaker 1yeah , by double , triple , etc . Um , so what would you say would be what ? So you said it sort of before . We've loosely um touched on this . What would you say is worth investing in and where is a good place to make smart savings ? I guess the structure things that can't be removed easily .
Speaker 2Yeah , exactly that , things that cannot be removed easily . Then it depends on the brief as well . If someone comes and says , like I said , my house is really dark and I want natural light , then glazing is going to play a huge part of the process and the budget . So it depends on the brief . It's really bespoke , but once we understand exactly the end goal , we can . We can give them a list of priorities almost and say this is where you want to spend the money and this is where you don't want to spend the money glazing is a key one , I'd say , because you can make it .
Speaker 3You can make something go from looking quite normal to looking quite special , so you get like a door that's standard doors 2.1 . If you make that 2.5 all of a sudden , all the way around , all of a sudden , you're letting that much more light in . It looks different from the outside and , yeah , everything kind of changes straight away , doesn't it ?
Speaker 1Glazing is huge Glazing , especially for the exterior and I guess the interior and the interior . The amount of light natural light that you let in Glazing's come a long way now , hasn't it ? Everybody worries ? We worked on a project and they had big glazing and they were worried about it being too hot because there's so much glazing . But I guess there's ways around that now , isn't there ?
Speaker 3yeah , I mean you can get the triple glazing do we do like overhangs and stuff as well , so you get the architectural feature , but it's also serving a function so it stays sort of shady yeah , at the , at the worst point of the day , so when the sun's highest , yeah , you block out that worst light yeah , I get car there's .
Speaker 1When you talk about things like that , that's you then got . When you're designing the property , you've got to think about where the sun rises , oh absolutely , the orientation is key there's so much just having this brief conversation .
Speaker 1There's so much that just even goes over my head , so I can't imagine what it's like for clients . I bet it's a like a wow , we thought this was going to be so simple and it'd be done in three months and we'd have the beautiful house . I mean , we touched on this , but what should listeners know about planning permission , especially in sort of ? I know you've done a little bit of conservation stuff . You do work on conservation stuff , but what do you think the listeners should be aware of when it comes to applying for planning permission ? If there was three top things , you would say , right , we're going for planning , but we've got to consider what's the three things that normally I think one of the things is be patient .
Speaker 2Some people really are in the rush to get their projects done . There is an element there with the time that we can't control , completely outside our control . One of them is definitely time . Be patient and then allow it as long as it needs to , because we can liaise with the council and things can be approved . But we need to be in a position . You know , if you're really stubborn and you just want one thing , then you just it's just not gonna go down . Well , you need to be open to some alterations . That would be number two .
Speaker 3I'll say location as well yeah , allocation like just being realistic about where , where you are . If you are in a conservation area , then you're going to be a little bit more restricted . Generally , it doesn't mean anything's kind of impossible , but you're going to be a little bit more restricted than you would be if you weren't in that area .
Speaker 1But yeah , that's not to say that you can't have something modern which contrasts against something quite traditional , something we get asked for quite often yeah , I'd imagine it's quite exciting when you get someone come to you with something a bit more traditional and they want to put a big extension on the side , but they want to have it a bit more contemporary , and then mixing the two in , I'd imagine that's quite , that's quite an exciting project to work on that .
Speaker 3Yeah , one that springs to mind is one that we've got down word in seafront at the moment . You might have seen it online . It's like you mentioned a roof terrace when we were talking before , so you might have seen that one , but that's in a conservation area . You know the kind of white , typical white seafront buildings really old , traditional style and they want like a modern , contemporary roof terrace on top of that . So that's in for planning at the moment . It's been in quite a while . We're constantly going back and forth with the council , but yeah , I think it's almost over the line , so hopefully , We'll get it there , so that , by the sounds of it , that one's been a little bit tricky .
Speaker 3Have you had to make a lot of adjustments to get the council to approve that one ?
Speaker 3I think we yeah , that's a bit of an anomaly . It was kind of like the first one of its kind in the five years that we've been going , because we did the typical process . We did like the pre-application , which is basically when you submit the application before planning , to try and get kind of a feel for what the council is going to say about it . So we did that and got the ideas from the case officer who was going to be looking after it , which we decided what they said to us wasn't quite right . So we wanted to push it a little bit further . We went into the full application , kind of without listening to that advice that they gave us , but justifying the reasons that we hadn't kind of agreed with their approach looking at other local examples and things like that basically justifying , with good reason , I think , why we hadn't done it . But then I think it was a bit of a dent to the ego of them and I think , yeah , that's caused us a few difficulties , massive delays .
Speaker 3Like I said , it's really subjective and I think they do . They probably take it a bit personally where they shouldn't as well .
Speaker 2Yeah , we always- .
Speaker 3We're still liaising . I think we'll get there .
Speaker 2Ed , I'm sure we will . We always prioritize the clients as well . So if they want something and the case officer comes and says it can't happen because of x , y and z , and our clients really want it
Smart Home Technology and Favorite Projects
Speaker 2to happen that way , then we need to come up with all sorts of backup .
Speaker 1yeah , yeah and I said that I don't want problems , I want solutions , and I guess it's very sort of you do that a lot within what you do . It's solution finding there's always a way to do something . And yeah , I think the planning thing that we said about waiting I've heard so many horror stories of people waiting for planning for a very long time . I suppose it can be quite disheartening .
Speaker 2Yeah , I think the worst we've had is about maybe six months . We haven't had more than that , but we've heard from clients that had gone with somebody else before that they had been waiting for maybe a couple of years , and that is , to us , unacceptable that roof terrace is probably up there as one of the longer ones .
Speaker 3Um , we had one as well for a new build house , um , where the liaison with the council was really good . We had like really positive feedback um , and then , yeah , the it all suddenly turned on its head . Um , I don't know if sometimes you wonder if maybe , like a neighbor , knows someone in the council with higher up , because basically the person we were liaising with was completely happy .
Speaker 3Yeah , um , and then their manager basically overrode what they were saying and said like we're not going to accept this kind of thing . So that happened . But then you go through the appeal process , which takes even longer , and through the appeal process it's like an independent planning inspector who then kind of assesses what you've put in versus what the council are saying and kind of their opinions , and then it went through anyway . So they're basically saying what the council said was wrong and what you put in should have been approved . And it was approved .
Speaker 1It's a shame , isn't it ? Because of all this red tape and you end up you get there eventually , whereas that guy from the council might have been having a bad day , like you say might have been having a bad day .
Speaker 2I know like you say might have had a neighbor .
Speaker 1Someone didn't really want it because that house isn't it's going to be nicer than my house . Now , um , what can we do ? I guess there are a lot of karens in the world . On there , there are a lot of people that just they don't want these things , even though it's it's not going to affect them really yeah , I think it's very important .
Speaker 2We think you said three key points for the listeners to know . I think one is also maybe a fourth one or fifth one is the neighbors yeah it is really important that people generally don't like changes . They object . It doesn't mean it's not gonna go through , because we've got objections in many applications and , as I said before , we've got like a hundred percent records of approvals . But that's not to say that people do object and it makes the application a bit longer if the objection is like yeah , if it stands up .
Speaker 1Yeah , some people will object . I'd imagine some people will object the most stupidest things .
Speaker 3For me it's like the wider effect as well , like it affects when it , when it gets delayed . Obviously it affects how quickly our , our process moves on . So it affects how quickly we get paid . Basically , yeah , yeah , and not only us , but so where we're kind of the start of the process , generally we're the first ones to meet the clients . It also affects , like your contractors , your local tradesmen , structural engineers , like everyone gets affected by the delays absolutely huge .
Speaker 2Everyone then asks us like what's happening with this project ? And it's like it's been delayed because of planning and it's like everyone else down the chain is like having an impact for this project .
Speaker 1This is not and I'd imagine , to build a to the client , the customer , the homeowner , the person that this is their dream . They've saved up whatever they've done to then have this . They've got the contractor they want to use all booked in because that guy's busy , that guy , if he's good , he's busy , his team they can't . They've booked this plot this time to do your build , which I guess then leads perfectly into how early should people bring in people like yourselves to avoid common pitfalls .
Speaker 2I think we should be the first ones . Like it doesn't necessarily happen that way , some people approach contractors first , but the reality is that without drawing , no one can really do anything in the process . So we should be the first one to also understand your budget and see how far you can get carried away with the project or how constrained you are . But that's that's our opinion , isn't it ? Yeah ?
Speaker 1so what would you say now if I was looking to start building in a year's time would probably be quite good from our conversation .
Speaker 2probably quite a good time to get in touch with someone like yourselves that needs to be measured for anybody to start working on it Once you've got existing plans so you are already a month down the line then someone can start talking to you about proposals and proposals take their time too and then obviously planning and all of it . So a year in advance is advisable .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah , you can't really start too soon either , because all you need is that final package of information that you're going to pass on to the contractor . Yeah , so yeah , as long as you've got that , you need to work towards getting to that point first , and then you can kind of move on at your leisure I suppose yeah , because you have to plan everything down to the final detail .
Speaker 1So what do they do then ? Sort of 3d map with a drone , the the site , the plot is that sort of how it works yeah , it's more like a spinning laser so you know the guys you see with the kind of tripods out there and you wonder , like what they're doing ?
Speaker 3are they trying to catch me speeding ? But they're actually measuring like the road and kind of taking the heights of the topography and yeah , there's lots to consider , isn't there ?
Speaker 1it's not just a case of hi , george maria , can I build a house ? Please , can I build a house ? Um , how do you build homes that are beautiful today and still relevant in 20 years ?
Speaker 3oh , that's a challenge , I think . Yeah , it's just about looking at , um , like , what materials are not just current , but what are going to withstand the , the weather , the test of time . I mean , there's some materials I'd say maybe they're like in the moment . But yeah , I think it's just important to kind of look at , look at the overall , see what's on trend and don't necessarily follow the trend , but follow what , where you think the trend is going . If that makes sense , yeah , I think the maintenance is really important .
Speaker 2Some people build a new and this is a simple , very simple example , but some people do like a roof . It could be someone just in their house doing replacing the tiles , or someone building a really nice new home . They put the roofs on and then they forget about birds protection . And if , if you don't do that , the next thing you see if you lovely gray tiled roof is covering seagull poop and that is as soon as if you want , and then it looks dreadful . So it's really important to pick materials that are easy to maintain , but also decide with with solutions to potential problems in the future .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah , and I guess we get a lot of people and sometimes less is more , Would you agree ? Yeah , Sometimes less is more People want to do , they want too much . Put a spaceship at one end and something at the other end . I guess it's quite the . So what's exciting you most about the future residential architecture ? What sort of what's going on at the moment that really gets you , really gets you excited ?
Speaker 2I think smart homes and getting everything fully controlled from your phone so you can approach your house , you know the garage door opens , you can put the oven on , equally with , like , the sustainability side of things , like if the glass gets too hot , the blinds come down .
Speaker 3Anywhere in the world as well . You can be like in Australia , controlling your home in England , and it's some amazing features .
Speaker 1Yeah , we did a project for a guy . Everything was controlled . I can't remember . Remember it was saying like 32 miles of cable around this house , every single light bulb was individual . He could change every single light bulb . He , the house was beautiful . He rented it out to a film crew and they went to Thailand while they were doing the . They went to Thailand fishing with his family while they were doing the . Well , he went to Thailand fishing with his family while they were doing the film shoot and he said yeah , if I want to , he's one of the certain cameras . They made him disconnect inside the house and stuff . He said but I could see what they're doing in the garden and he said it's just amazing , on the other side of the world I can open my curtains .
Speaker 2And spray paint .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's big data centers , though A lot of them . I mean , this guy had a whole room . Yeah , you do need the space for that so your favorite project and why ? I'll ask each of you this individually because I'm sure you have I think we've .
Speaker 3Yeah , the car lift that I mentioned . That project is quite special .
Speaker 1Have you got video and images of that ? Yeah , it's probably on the website . Yeah , yeah , if we can get that , because obviously a lot of people listen to this , but some people will watch it . So what we'll do is we'll get some B-roll from you and we'll put the car lift on the YouTube so people can see what you're talking about , because I think it's quite important . Yeah , so sorry , carry on .
Speaker 3Yeah , so for me , that's like all singing , all dancing , kind of like luxury glazing , luxury finishes . You've got like an internal passenger lift running four stories his and hers en-suites , his and hers dressing rooms , views of the sea , panoramic views from each level , where you've got terraces out the back , yeah , large open plan space , kind of everything that everyone would want . A chef's kitchen yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah , but there's a beautiful kitchen that was very expensive . It doesn't get used because tucked around the corner is a secret .
Speaker 3Yeah , exactly , exactly .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah . And what about you ?
Speaker 2the same project I'll say the same , but that's a new build that is starting now , so everything we've got is , like our information that we've produced , that's starting now on site . So I'll say , like a really good renovation that we've done in a similar area , like five minutes away from this one , but it was like a really traditional home with like the typical England style peach roof really old fashioned , if you like and we just fully transformed it into really contemporary front and back , like it was only with extensions . It wasn't a knockdown and rebuild , it was just transforming the house and I think the result is truly .
Speaker 3Yeah , we've done that a few times , where we keep the frontage towards the road like quite traditional when I assume . And then you go around the back and it can be like , yeah , hyper modern .
Speaker 1Big glazed hills .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah , yeah , we've had a mock Tudor style property on like a really traditional road and then at the back we've used like a black zinc where it kind of complements the black um mock tudor timber and things like that .
Speaker 2So yeah , we also have like a few new buildings that are really good . So yeah , like like um , because we're more talking about individual houses , but we've got a few projects and like on the go that are like for new houses and things like that . We don't do them like the typical new builds copy and paste . We do every single one .
Speaker 1You have your own yeah , and I think that , like I work with a lot of architects , interior designers , designers and stuff , and everybody has their own stamp . Everybody will have their own stamp , their own sort of vision , their own style , and I think that's what is important for the clients , for you to have that meeting , to make sure that they believe in your vision as well , because I think it's probably finding the right , finding the right architect , the right designers is , I would imagine , as key as finding a contractor that's competent to actually build it yeah , definitely yeah .
Speaker 3That relationship is so important yeah um , yeah , we've got an example , actually , where we completed the project for someone . Then they invited us to their wedding and we've been friends ever since . So we're constantly going back to the house that we designed for them .
Speaker 1We're looking at different things in the house when we're there it's , I bet
Final Advice for Home Builders
Speaker 1it's quite nice , I bet it's , I bet it's um . Yeah , do you ever clash with clients ? Do you ever I say that do you ever clash where they want something ? They think it's possible ? You know from your knowledge or your experience , it's just not going to happen yeah .
Speaker 2So I don't think we clash , I think we advise them . We , we definitely let out what we're thinking and what we know from our , like , professional background , but then we adapt . So if someone wants something different to what we're recommending them , that that's fine , we adapt , adapt we have to so many different characters out there as well .
Speaker 3Right , we're dealing , we are dealing with the general public still . So it's yeah , you never know kind of you know some people are relaxed and calm and laid back .
Speaker 1Some of them , I'd imagine they've been saving for this . It's gotta be perfect and they're inspecting every last thing . And some people just trust you . Some people , yeah , I trust you , I trust your judgment . You've done this before . It won't be the first . It's not the first and it won't be the last time .
Speaker 2That's when the bridge runs as it's best . I'd say when people trust our advice . Some people jump ahead , but if you trust the architect that you're hiring , I think the process is a lot .
Speaker 3Yeah , they almost don't need to do too much .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , don't overthink , we just do it for them , yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah . So do you just do the architecture or do you guys get involved with the interior design ?
Speaker 2It's a mix .
Speaker 1It's a mix .
Speaker 2Because there is stuff that needs to be designed with the architecture we don't go into , like colors of cushions and things like that . We leave that for the clients . Unless they ask us , then we can say what we think . But we're not really interior designers . It's more about the views through the house , like the spaces , the feeling that we're creating , and not so much the colours .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , I suppose there's so much I don't think you could . I'm terrible with choosing paint colours . I'm terrible with choosing paint colours . We'll wrap this up soon , but top three things that someone should do before a major build or renovation .
Speaker 3So , yeah , I'll start with choose the right architect . I think it's like essential um , just that relationship that we've been talking about just need to make sure that you get on with them on a personal level , as well as making sure that they're kind of capable of what you , you need them to do .
Speaker 2I think that's really important yeah , I think the other one is perhaps the sense of scale for what they're asking for . So some people might say I want a six meter extension , and it's like you actually know what six meter is giving you . Map that into garden , have a look , because when you remove your existing rear wall , you've got six meter plus all the road . Like , understand what you're asking for , the sense of scale and at any level , even if it's a new build , like some people come up with numbers that they think is going to work and and then they might be surprised how big things are . We won't propose something that is small because we'll make sure everything fits in it , but sometimes people , without knowing they , can ask for more than what they need . Yeah , so a sense of scale is very important and then budget as well .
Speaker 2I would keep saying maybe just take that initial figure and just double it and then you're fine well , just make sure you understand it , I think .
Speaker 1Just make sure you understand it and don't go searching on the internet , because it's not . If your , if your bifolds for the back of your beautiful beach house , like you said , are averaging at 70,000 pounds and someone can do it for 12 , chances are it's not going to work . This is a big one . What's one thing people should absolutely avoid ?
Speaker 2I think for me it's jumping ahead yeah trying to jump in the process .
Speaker 1There is a process kind of run before you can walk it's tested , we've done it a thousand times .
Speaker 2Just trust it and follow it trust the process .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , I think so , yeah , I would say the same there yeah , last couple , any quick guidance for people stuck between big ideas and tight budgets . Obviously we spoke about this . Anything that sort of jumps to your head , cut back , I think , maybe be realistic with the space that you have . So if it's a renovation of jumps to your head , cut back .
Speaker 2I think , maybe be realistic with the space that you have . So if it's a renovation , obviously it's different if it's a new build , but if it is a renovation , be realistic with the space that you have , the ceiling height , so that you understand your house .
Speaker 3Yeah , give yourself phasing as well , maybe . Yeah , like if there's an obvious part where you can say , oh , maybe it's like I want to do the loft and the extension , maybe they start with the loft and and save the extension for for when they've got that experience , because once they've been through one part of the project as well , they'll have a much better understanding of costs and the whole process yeah , maybe build the pool house and not the pool , or build the pool and not the pool house .
Speaker 1Yeah , exactly .
Speaker 2Future proof and then finish it if you need to . But yeah , it's true what you were saying , like if a client has gone through a process , they'll have a much better understanding than if they don't . And if they don't it's sometimes when they are too ambitious . So cut your ambitions , because this is an expensive game , I'd say .
Speaker 1Yeah , do you find a lot of people ?
Speaker 3they'll boycott the landscaping , especially out the front of the house yeah , I don't know if it's a boycott or if it's just like at that part of the project where yeah where they've maybe run out of of money for a while . Yeah , um , and they need to , uh , pull it back in a bit .
Speaker 1We find that with a lot of projects the internals get that Obviously . Of course , I know you're going to do your garden . Well , I did my garden first because I like spending time outside and the house is livable . But yeah , I think we find it with a lot of clients that they'll leave , you'll do the house and you'll open the front door and it looks beautiful , but the drive's still MOT . It's growing everywhere , yeah . So where can people find more about you guys at Fresh Architects ?
Speaker 3Shameless plug . So , yeah , google is probably our best tool really . We've got all the reviews on there as well . Loads of our projects on our website yeah , we keep the website pretty well up to date . There's lots of projects on there , different stages um different sizes as well . We do the full range , like I said . So anything from like a small extension right up to to new build houses , like five or six on a site , say , um , but yeah , anything in between as well .
Speaker 2Yeah , I think there is some updates in social media . I don't know if that's how you found us .
Speaker 1Yeah , I've followed you on social media for quite a while . Yeah , from the social media just to look at the stuff , and then we sort of walk down that seafront and see some of the stuff that you have worked on and it inspires me and it all me , um , and it all looks amazing . It all looks amazing . So thank you so much , guys for coming on building the dream well , thank you and uh , great , we'll talk again soon lovely , thank you , thank you .