Implementation is where the Detailed Design documentation stops being paper and becomes a built space: we coordinate directly with the contractor, carry out site visits to check progress against the drawings, resolve problems as they surface, and manage the project through to a finished handover. It’s the last stage in our five-stage design process, and the one where the design either holds up on a real construction site or it doesn’t.
Keeping the Build on Track
Once a project moves onto site, our role shifts from producing documentation to protecting it. The Detailed Design stage set out exactly what should be built and how: materials, finishes, fixing details, consented drawings. Implementation is where our registered architects, interior and retail designers, and technicians stay involved to make sure the contractor is building to that documentation, not an approximation of it.
That means regular site visits, not occasional check-ins. Our team walks the build against the drawings, checks materials and finishes as they land, and flags anything that’s drifted from spec before it gets buried behind a wall or covered over in a shopfit. Site conditions rarely match a set of drawings exactly. A service turns up in the wrong spot, a supplier substitutes a product, a levels issue only shows up once demolition starts. When that happens, having the original design team on-site rather than a set of documents handed over to someone else means the problem gets resolved against the actual design intent, quickly, instead of guessed at by whoever happens to be free that day.
Handover and Sign-Off
Implementation ends with the client walking into a finished space that matches what was designed, consented, and built. It’s the stage where design sells stops being a tagline and becomes a real room. We manage the final inspections, work through the defects list with the contractor, and confirm sign-off before handing the completed space back to the client.
This is also why Studio Gascoigne stays involved from first concept through to a consented, built result, rather than handing over drawings and stepping back. Mark Gascoigne and the wider team built the studio around exactly that: the people who designed the space are the same people checking it gets built properly. It’s part of what sits behind the studio’s 170+ design awards, and you can see the results for yourself in our completed, built projects.