Most people who work in construction can recite the RIBA Plan of Work. Far fewer can tell you what a contractor should actually be doing at each stage, because most contractors aren’t in the room until it’s nearly over.
Here’s what the eight stages actually mean from where I sit, not as an architect, as the person who has to build what gets decided in them.
Stage 0, Strategic Definition
This is before design starts, when a client is working out whether they should build at all. We’re rarely in the room this early, but when we are, it’s usually a conversation about feasibility and realistic budget ranges, not detailed cost.
Stage 1, Preparation and Briefing
This is where we ask to be involved. The brief is being written, the site is being assessed, and the big structural decisions about what’s achievable haven’t been locked in yet. A conversation here about buildability and realistic cost ranges can shape the brief itself, rather than getting bolted onto a brief that’s already fixed.
Stage 2, Concept Design
The architect is exploring options. Our job at this point is to flag anything that’s going to cause a genuine problem later, an unusual structural approach, a material that needs long lead times, before it’s designed in deeply enough that changing it feels like starting over.
Stage 3, Spatial Coordination
Design is firming up. This is where value engineering conversations properly start, finding a cheaper way to hit the same brief, not a worse one. It’s also where we start being specific about programme, not just cost.
Stage 4, Technical Design
The last stage we’re formally engaged in before site starts. Technical detail gets locked down here, and it’s the last realistic point to catch a buildability problem before it becomes an on-site problem. This is also where our in-house QS work is most intensive, turning a design into a cost plan that will actually hold.
Stage 5, Manufacturing and Construction
Site work. This is where a lot of contractors first properly engage, which is exactly the problem. By Stage 5, the decisions that determine most of the final cost and buildability have already been made, for better or worse.
Stage 6, Handover
The building is finished and handed over. A managed handover matters more than people expect, this is where snagging either gets resolved cleanly or turns into a drawn-out dispute.
Stage 7, Use
The building is in use. Our involvement here is lighter, but the relationships built through Stages 1 to 6 are usually what bring a client back for the next project.
Where we actually sit
Personally, I’m engaged from Stage 1 through Stage 4, that’s the pre-construction phase, and it’s why my title is what it is. But Bespoke as a company spans the whole thing, Stage 0 through Stage 7, just via different people. Someone’s building the relationship at Stage 0 and 1, I’m doing the cost and buildability work through Stage 4, the site team takes Stage 5, and someone’s still answering the phone at Stage 7.
The mistake I see most often is a contractor treated as a Stage 5 resource. By then, most of what determines whether a project runs smoothly has already been decided.