STAGE 0-3 CONCEPT DESIGN

RIBA Plan of Work 

Stage 0-3 Support

The opportunity to make key sustainable and beneficial decisions at the early stages of concept design are often overlooked. Mesh recommends that this is where you and your client should start the conversation.

Clients often hold off spending money on consultancy fees until after planning. The problem with this is that as the design phases progress, options and design choices reduce and costs increase rapidly. At worst, lack of sustainable design considerations before going for planning permission can lead to a resubmission or, indeed, fundamental building design elements that are not compatible to reach the desired energy efficiency goals of the client.



Mesh can help you and your client to navigate this early-stage design. We help to keep costs under control, whilst also giving appropriate design analysis and consideration before submitting the building for approval.

For the most successful low-energy and progressive projects, we find the following services offer benefits to both the homeowner and wider design team:

Initial overheating analysis

gives peace of mind that the building design is within comfortable limits and is thermally stable year round. Any issues can be flagged and the design modified appropriately without compromising the aesthetics. 

Building fabric optimisation

allows you to intelligently spend the project budget precisely where it will have the biggest impact on energy bill savings and thermal comfort. Ideal if you have a fixed budget for insulation work or an optimal design point you are trying to uncover.

Renewable energy feasibility

enables you to holistically review renewable technology options for the building, understand capital and running costs, available government subsidies and the best way to proceed. The optimised whole-site strategy will give your design team clarity for moving the project into the next stage. 

Embodied Carbon Analysis

can be supported at the very earliest stages of your project for even concept designs to better inform design evolution. Be sure you’re on the right track and designing progressive and beautiful, lower carbon buildings with confidence. 

By taking a measured approach at this early stage, we take the guesswork out of low-energy building design. 

Embodied Carbon Calculator

Our FREE Embodied Carbon Calculator gives a valuable insight at the very early stages of the design process allowing you to discover how the embodied carbon of your designs is affected by material choice and also how your building compares to the RIBA 2030 targets.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EC CALCULATOR
Embodied carbon calculator

At whichever stage of your project you are, drop us a line and we will be glad to support you



Relevant Articles

Doug’s Sustainable Construction Predictions for 2024

by Doug Johnson • 11 Jan, 2024
As we come out of our end of year hibernation period for 2023 and try to both digest and interpret what 2023 had in store for us, how we dealt with it, and what we would change if we could; we drag ourselves out into the blinding light of 2024 and hope for a less tumultuous year in the UK’s sustainable construction sector. I am an optimistic person and ‘glass half-full thinking’, as well as doing my best to gaze into the future, is my default position. When working with a team on the sharp end of sustainable building design, there are some trends which simply cannot be ignored and hold great promise for 2024. The following trends are in areas we’ve seen growing design time and client fees being spent to great effect, and that’s why these are my top four sustainable construction prediction of 2024.

Navigating the Growing Risks: 6 Sustainable Building Design Challenges in the Construction Sector

by Doug Johnson • 07 Dec, 2023
In recent years, sustainability has seen a massive increase in priority within the construction industry. As climate change and its effects worsen around the world, architects, builders, and developers are now feeling more compelled to adopt more environmentally friendly practices. While pursuing sustainable building design is definitely a commendable course of action, the process itself has its own set of challenges; introducing potential risks to the construction industry that must be addressed.
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