Strong teamwork is essential for successful project design and delivery. Downes Associates is always willing to take the extra step necessary to achieve this by participating fully and openly with the client and all members of the design team.

For every project, irrespective of scale, the primary design considerations adopted by Downes Associates are functionality, safety and economy. These, however, are the minimum requirements. Downes Associates also believes that the issues of flexibility and sustainability are equally important to successful design.

Flexibility in design is twofold: firstly, the ability to adjust to the changing needs of the Client and Design Team during the design process and secondly, the ability to specify designs that are adaptable to changing needs during the lifetime of the building.

Sustainability invokes design considerations that will enhance the final design and result in more economic, pleasant and sustainable structures. As part of the design development process employed by Downes Associates, issues regarding sustainability are considered in order to maximise the embodied and operational energy efficiency of the building fabric. Downes Associates is also accustomed to dealing with aspects of life cycle costing in relation to materials specification and performance, and will always endeavour to specify materials and products that provide the maximum design life. However, where cost restraints do not allow this, Downes Associates will work in conjunction with the Quantity Surveyor in the preparation of life cycle matrices to allow a full cost – benefit analysis of alternative specifications.