Introduction to the Practice: Design and Business

Good design is good business, best design is best business.

I have become so disenchanted by the lack of change in the construction industry and the lack of connection between design and funding that sees many projects fail to reach completion, I have decided to do something about it.

After 30 years at the helm of LCE architects, my team and I have set up LOMAX.

A multi-disciplinary design service that looks at the problem of delivering concepts, buildings, and mixed-use regeneration projects in a totally new way, with a clear objective to put design foremost in the support of our client’s brand and business case thus ensuring the viability of the financial plan.

Design supports and enhances the Gross Development Value, not the opposite. In this context, the practice loves a design challenge and transforms even the most complex scenarios into clear and understood solutions.

What is design? Design is about problem solving, but only if the right problems are being solved.

So Design is first about asking questions, the right questions, and then creatively finding the best answers. Those answers are often not the most obvious, or how it’s been done before, and may involve pushing the envelope, both literally and metaphorically, and thinking in a completely different way.

But it also means that most design moves are conceptually simple. That doesn’t mean they’re easy to develop or get right, but they’re simple at the level of intellect and have a clarity that is easily understood. LOMAX have the experience and confidence to ask the right questions of their clients and not to overcomplicate the solution.