Masterplanning operates at the scale above the individual building — how a site is divided, where movement runs, what density it can carry, how the public realm between the buildings works. It is a policy discipline as much as a design one, governed by the local plan, the NPPF, and increasingly the design codes authorities now expect for phased or multi-developer schemes. Led here by Aun Naeem, whose experience covers sites from single infill plots to multi-plot frameworks.
When it’s the right first step
When the site is too large or complex to be treated as a single building brief. When a scheme will be delivered in phases or by multiple developers over time. When a site’s potential is being tested for the first time and finance depends on a unit count. When the site sits inside a regeneration brief or emerging plan allocation.
What a masterplan contains
Site analysis at strategic scale.
Capacity study testing how many units or how much floorspace the site can genuinely support once daylight, aspect, access, drainage and policy are honestly applied.
Layout delivering the capacity: blocks arranged around streets, squares, courtyards.
Movement strategy — vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, servicing, refuse.
Public realm strategy — what happens between the buildings. The most decisive part.
Phasing plan — how the scheme is built out and how partial phases work as places.
Design code where the scheme will be delivered by others. Sets rules on heights, massing, materials, frontage.
The planning route
Most masterplans reach consent through an outline application — establishing principle and parameters, reserving detailed design for later "reserved matters" applications. On smaller or single-owner masterplans, a full application is sometimes right. Either route benefits from structured pre-application engagement with the authority.
What we deliver
- Site analysis at strategic scale
- Capacity study with density and typology testing
- Masterplan layout drawings, models and diagrams
- Movement, access and public realm strategy
- Phasing and delivery framework
- Design code where the scheme is built by others
- Design and Access Statement for the application
- Pre-application and community engagement where required
How the process runs
Understand
Site, context, constraints and policy.
Test
Capacity options modelled and compared honestly.
Frame
The chosen option developed as a masterplan or framework, with a design code where needed.
Engage
Pre-application meetings and community engagement. Concerns identified early cost far less to resolve.
Consent
Outline or full permission with the parameter plans and design code.
Standards and regulations that apply
The primary references we work with.
The framework’s chapter on well-designed and beautiful places.
How well-designed places can be achieved in practice.
The template for local design codes.
Strengthened the role of design codes in plan-making.
The site-specific policies that carry statutory weight.
Industry benchmark for the design of neighbourhoods.
Common questions
What size of site do you work on? +
From infill plots and backland sites up to multi-plot frameworks. The question is whether the site needs decisions about layout and density rather than just a single building.
What is a design code? +
A document setting the rules a later designer must follow — heights, massing, materials, frontage. Increasingly required by authorities for phased schemes.
Can you take a site through outline planning? +
Yes. Outline with parameter plans and a design code is the standard route for large or phased sites.
How is capacity tested? +
Not by dividing site area by an assumed density. We model actual buildings on the actual site against the daylight, amenity and drainage standards. The number that survives is the real capacity — almost always lower than the early estimate.
Do you work on plan-making? +
Yes. Site promotion through Local Plan reviews, Neighbourhood Plan support, response to emerging policy.
Do you run community engagement? +
Yes. Workshops, exhibitions, targeted stakeholder meetings. Objections at planning stage often trace back to issues that could have been resolved earlier.
What about environmental impact assessment? +
For schemes above thresholds an EIA is required. We coordinate with the specialists who prepare it.
Do you work on regeneration? +
Yes. Both directors have regeneration experience across residential and mixed-use.
If you have a site you’re considering, a director will make time to talk it through.