Every Ström project follows the same structured methodology. Grounded in the RIBA Plan of Work and refined through fifteen years of practice across multiple countries, it gives every client clarity at every stage, confidence in the programme and consistency in the outcome. The Ström Way is consistent across every project. Built into it is the flexibility to accommodate different scales, locations, briefs and client requirements without the process itself changing.

At its heart is a six-stage structure, each with a defined purpose and a formal gateway. Nothing advances until the work is right and you are ready to proceed.

Underpinning each stage is a suite of project management tools, client documents and structured sign-off processes. These include stage-specific briefing documents, design review records, cost check reports and client approval sign-offs at every gateway. At key points the process is reviewed against a structured quality assurance checklist, ensuring nothing is assumed and nothing is overlooked. Think of it as a clear guide for your project, one that keeps every member of the team, including you, informed, aligned and certain about what has been decided and what comes next.

Stage 1 - Briefing & budget alignment

Every project begins with understanding. Before a single line is drawn, we visit the site with you and invest time in getting to know what you are trying to achieve, your ambitions for the project, how you want to use it, what you want it to say, and what success looks like to you. That understanding becomes the foundation everything else is built on.

From that, we establish a cost framework across Shell and Core, Fit Out, Landscape and ancillary elements, ensuring design ambition and financial reality are aligned from the outset. For private clients, that means understanding how you want to live. For commercial clients, it means understanding objectives, market context and programme parameters.

Stage 2 - Concept design

This is where the practice's philosophy comes into play. Everything learned in Stage 1, the brief, the site, the ambitions, the way the client wants to live or what the scheme needs to deliver, is brought together into a design that is particular to this project and no other. The concept is tested in three dimensions for proportion, light, buildability and cost, so you can see and fully interrogate it before committing to move forward. Where appropriate, we open pre-application discussions with the planning authority at this stage.

We offer the Ström Concept Guarantee: if the initial concept does not meet your expectations, we will develop an alternative at no additional fee.

Stage 3 - Spatial coordination & planning

The agreed concept becomes a fully coordinated design, ready for planning or building permit submission. The full consultant team is integrated at this stage, not later, ensuring the design moves forward as a coherent whole. Where local compliance requires it, we work alongside locally appointed professionals to ensure the process is properly managed.

Stage 4 — Technical design

This is where the design is fully resolved and prepared for construction. We produce a complete set of technical drawings and documentation covering every junction, material transition and building detail. The more thoroughly this is done, the more accurate your costs and the better prepared the project is for everything that follows.

We structure this stage across three phases, each with its own sign-off.

4A: Client decision development. Layouts, materials, products, specifications and significant elements are confirmed before technical production begins, protecting the programme and preventing late revisions.

4B: Detailed technical delivery. The full construction drawing package is developed, with every element resolved and coordinated across all disciplines.

4C: Tender support. We prepare and issue tender documents and contribute to the contractor selection process alongside your project manager or cost consultant. You appoint your contractor with full information and confidence.

Stage 5 - Construction

Throughout construction, your dedicated project lead works closely with the entire delivery team, contractors, consultants and subcontractors, as the consistent presence keeping the process moving as a coherent whole. We attend site meetings, inspect works, respond to technical queries and review incoming proposals to ensure every element serves the design intent. Complex projects always throw up decisions and unexpected situations. We make sure every one of them is resolved in a way that considers the entire project, not just the immediate issue.

The result is a construction process that moves with clarity and purpose, where the quality of the design is protected at every turn.

Stage 6 - Handover

As the project approaches completion, we work through snagging, ensuring everything is resolved before formal handover takes place. After handover we return to carry out a thorough defects inspection, liaising with the construction and consultant team to ensure every item is properly rectified and the contract is fully closed out. Your project does not end at practical completion. Neither does our responsibility.

The Value of a Structured Process

Fifteen years of delivering complex projects across multiple countries has given us a deep understanding of what makes a project succeed. The stages, gateways and sign-offs that make up the Ström Way exist for one reason: to give you programme security, cost clarity and confidence in the outcome at every stage.

Ström Architects specialises in the architecture of living. Private houses, holiday homes, luxury residential developments and the ancillary buildings that complete them, spas, pool houses, guest accommodation and resort facilities. Working exclusively in this world means the practice understands its demands, its sensitivities and the expectations of the clients it serves with a depth that only comes from genuine specialisation.

For private clients, that means a project that feels considered, well managed and genuinely enjoyable from the first conversation to the day you move in. For commercial clients, it means a design partner who understands that programme certainty, budget control and buildability are as important to the outcome as the quality of the design itself.

To understand how this would work for your project, please get in touch.