Help the client: beyond business as usual

Help the client: beyond business as usual
Interactive brainstorm

Seminar space
The Building Centre, London

8.30am - Registration opens with tea, coffee and pastries available
9.00am - Presentations begin

How can architects help clients deliver ambitious, regenerative projects? How can we challenge the siloed working and adversarial culture enshrined in traditional models of appointment, procurement and insurance? And what’s the best way to incentivise all parties to work together to minimise costs and carbon, and deliver the best possible results?

These are some of the crucial questions up for discussion at a free-to-attend in-person event at the Building Centre on the morning of Tuesday 27th October. Delivered in partnership with HDR as part of Regenerative Design 2026 the event brings together leading architects and clients with experience of projects at every scale.

SPEAKERS

• Neuroscientist Beau Lotto of the Hummingbird Learning Lab will deliver an introduction setting out the issues that hinder or help collaboration between different players with different perspectives, agendas and professional backgrounds.

• Julia Barfield of Marks Barfield Architects will discuss creative solutions to the challenge of helping clients get ambitious and often unconventional projects off the ground drawing on her own projects including the London Eye, Cambridge Central Mosque and the West Somerset Tidal Lagoon.

• Colin Rohfling, vice president and director of sustainable development at global architecture practice HDR, will draw on case studies to illustrate the practice’s approach to collaborating with commercial clients to deliver regenerative outcomes on large-scale projects both internationally and in the UK.

• Daniel Bianchi of Cullinan Studio will share the practice’s experience of Integrated Project Insurance (IPI), a form of insurance that encourages collaboration by calling for all parties involved in a project (client, architect, engineers, contractors and consultants) to sign up to a single contract, with conditions that incentivise shared responsibility.

• Roger Madelin, Joint Head of the 53-acre Canada Water Development at developer British Land and one of the most influential clients in British architecture, will talk about the ways architects can help commercial developers deliver regenerative projects at scale.

The workshop, which takes place between 8.30 and 11.30 am on Tuesday 27th October at the Building Centre in central London, will explore key challenges including:

• How architects can help clients get projects off the ground without undermining the value of their work

• How to establish and nurture working relationships that foster creativity and collaboration without duplicating effort and costs

• How to challenge the siloed working and adversarial culture enshrined on traditional models of appointment, procurement and insurance

• How to arrive at a schedule of deliverables and, crucially, fee payments, that represents a just reward for all parties, while acknowledging the realities of fund-raising, financing and phased delivery

• How to incentivise all parties to work together to minimise costs and carbon, and deliver the best possible results

Members of the audience are invited to share own challenges, problems and experiences as the panel explores ideas about how to organise and manage the project in a way that does justice to the client’s regenerative ambitions.

Delivered in partnership with: