Our Services

In an ever changing landscape for designers and developers where legislative changes, a growing burden on providing a ‘golden thread’ of decision making and certification, Design Engine offer a ‘total through wall’ design service tailored to our clients’ specific requirements.

The key to delivering a fully compliant and robust façade lies in the detail where manufacturer certification, consultant obligation/willingness, project pressures, supply chain restrictions and warranty compliance can often be in conflict. This conflict is further worsened when design packages are split between a number of different installers carrying a limited scope of design liability.

Design Engine removes much of this conflict by taking design liability and coordinating products and interfaces as close to the test certification held by the manufacturers, ensuring the consultants are fully aware of the restrictions & limitations of each system, managing the ‘engineering judgment’ that may be required and ensuring all warranty providers (be they NHBC, LABC or others) are fully versed in the technical arguments and justification that often comes when architectural intent is contrary to tested certification. We believe this offers our clients a complete service where the architectural intent is developed to a fully engineered construction-ready package that coordinates all interfaces, removes the burden on Design Management and provides a One Stop Shop.

We also believe firmly in early engagement with our clients where the traditional RIBA Stage 3 & 4 works are significantly accelerated to provide the construction pack for tender purposes at Stage 4A, requiring very little adaption through Stage 5.

A subject that preoccupies most of our industry since the tragic events at Grenfell Tower in 2017, the refurbishment of Britain’s existing building stock is high on the public agenda. The subsequent confusion around Building Regulations, Professional Indemnity Insurances, the Building Safety Fund and the chronic under capacity of specialist services in this niche market has led to public frustration and building owners being left in both a technical & physical limbo.

Design Engine have a wide and extensive project portfolio of refurbishment projects across a wide range of clients with very different briefs and scope of service. Our experience has shown that there is a temptation to over-simply recladding works to make the scale of the task more palatable. However, we firmly believe that each building is unique, has unique issues that may present a risk to residents and occupiers and the replacement of combustible materials (while uppermost in the public imagination at present) cannot always be undertaken at the cost of the other requirements of a façade; thermal performance, air tightness and air permeability, structural movement & acoustic performance.

We also understand the unique situation clients find themselves in when a building is identified as requiring recladding works. As Built information is often incomplete, missing or not available in a usable format. Much of the technical accreditation of the time has been removed from the public domain. Many buildings have been adapted and changed without records being kept. This is a technical challenge that Design Engine are able to assist clients, particularly when the complicated task of recladding a building is exasperated by continued occupancy by residents, loss of income/revenue suffered by the client, the availability of materials being in short and/or long lead times & restricted access.

There is a common thread when buildings develop latent defects, be they new build or refurbishment/change of use. In our experience, most defects occur at the point where the technical design interfaces between two different designers, be that an interface between two separate design & installation packages or the interface between the architectural design intent and the practical reality of applying that intent to a building.

Design Engine have extensive experience of investigating the root cause of latent defects. We start by reviewing the available technical information to establish if the design is robust and compliant at the time of construction. If found not to be compliant, we offer our professional opinion in support of any action our client may wish to take. If the design is compliant, we are able to attend site for intrusive surveys to observe, record and provide professional opinion on the cause of the defect. We are also able, as is our nature, to provide workable solutions to correct the defect, not as a temporary measure, but as a permanent and reliable solution.

When purchasing a building, understanding the potential liabilities is of utmost importance. With facades being costly and complicated to repair and essential to the performance of the structure, understanding of this area is key and it needs to be done at timescales to suit the deal.

Design Engine offer a technical due diligence service where we will review the historic information available and attend site to develop an understanding of the installed systems and any visible defects or concerns. All of this is then distilled down into a risk rated report for client consideration.

We are specialists in light steel framing systems, our team have worked with leading system manufacturers and market leaders and helped to develop their services and systems. We are experts in the detailing and specification of light steel frame and timber structures.

We have expertise in framed building structures, covering offsite modules and walling to on site stick built steel framed systems. Examples cover bespoke housing solutions as well as volumetric construction. Our team of specialist designers utilise in house developed structural software and latest 3D parametric modelling systems to ensure total design solution from concept to site delivery and inspection.

We are registered NHBC Light Steel Frame Stage 2 assessors.

We offer technical design services across most types of composite and aluminium/steel door and window systems. We have a dedicated team of specialist Glazing Designers & Engineers with extensive experience of most widely available systems. We find that in a climate where there is ever more scrutiny on the technical compliance of ‘sold as seen’ systems, there is more pressure on specifiers and designers to satisfy warranty bodies such as NHBC and the ever changing demands of Façade Consultants. We find that many manufacturers of systems hold generic or third party test certification, there are often conflicting Specifications from architects and consultants and that the architectural intent may also be in conflict.

Our experience of these systems means that Design Engine are the ideal partner to advise, design, engineer and detail your window, door and curtain wall systems so you have the reassurance that you will have the most robust, effective and cost efficient design possible for your project.

Our team of designers use various modelling packages to realise our clients vision. We can provide data rich solutions to projects conforming to the clients BIM requirements. Design Engine have worked on many BIM solutions as well as offering advice to local authorities and manufacturing businesses.

From bespoke fabrications to special design concepts, our breadth of experience and skills offers our clients a consultancy service able to pull solutions to unique problems from different areas of construction, producing designs that are truly unique in both thought and practice. Our creativity and resourcefulness means that you can have confidence that we can offer you a range of solutions optimised to suit you.

From the formation of the company, we identified a significant weakness in many service providers who didn’t fully understand the effect of structural compliance on projects. We have a large team of specialist structural engineers who have a complete understanding of niche products, their interaction and performance under load. Rather than looking at individual elements of a construction, we understand how separate elements interact and behave under load, allowing us to offer our clients elegant, cost efficient and simple design solutions.

Our designers and engineers work hand in hand so that there’s no revision of designs and those presented to our clients are full working and structurally qualified solutions.

Typical products and materials which we work with include:

• Light Steel Framing
• Hot Rolled Steel
• Aluminium
• Structural Glass
• Timber
• Curtain Wall
• Glazing Systems
• Stairs
• Balustrades
• Bespoke Bracketry
• Façade Structural Engineering
• Finite Element Analysis
• Wind Analysis
• NHBC Stage 2 Assessment for light steel framing
• 3rd party checking
• Manufacturer support
• Steel connection design

We have experience in many sectors with several chartered engineers in the practice. We continually develop and maintain access to the latest software packages to allow us to offer competitive services and lead times.

Our Designers are used to working with system suppliers to develop their in house capabilities. We have worked on a wide range of development activities covering bespoke software tools, Offsite technology and system development to improve service offering without the need for internal recruitment.

Our team can be used on a short term project basis or like many of our client as an ongoing resource to compliment in house skill sets and adjust to commercial market requirements. Our Engineers have developed tailored calculation software for themselves and our clients in addition to using a selection of the most advanced packages available on the market. Our Designers have produced dynamic capabilities within AutoCAD and other 3D modelling software to speed up and automate processes removing human error. We pride ourselves on staying ahead in technological advances.