‘Ask the Architect’ – available throughout the show on the RIBA stand

If you’re planning to extend or reconfigure your home, one of the best places to begin is to appoint a firm of architects. Right from the start, they will spend time understanding you, your family situation, your existing home, and your aspirations. Investing time at the design stage allows you to try out different ideas before agreeing a way forward that suits your circumstances and budget. Their experience and expertise will quickly uncover the best solutions, with you in control throughout.

Architects do so much more than design buildings. They oversee projects from conception to completion, with expertise in securing planning permissions, sustainability , building regulations approval, selecting builders, and managing the construction phase. Chartered Architects work to a strict code of conduct set out by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and those who work for RIBA-accredited Chartered Practices meet the ultimate quality standard in the UK.

Highly skilled, these firms offer everything you’d expect from a professional organisation: knowledge, experience, integrity , competence, fairness, with adequate resources and proper insurances in place. What makes them stand out from the crowd though is that they operate to extra-high standards, running a quality management system and holding appropriate health and safety , environmental management, employment, and equality , diversity and inclusion policies. In short, they do everything to give you peace of mind. Behind the education and ongoing professional training, you’ll find approachable, friendly individuals, all passionately focused on devising the best design solution for your project, so helping you to realise your aspirations.

You are unlikely to build or substantially alter or extend your own home more than once in your life.

Hiring an architect not only mitigates the risks of things going wrong but leads to the best possible end result.