The SOANE Method
Vision to Value™
Every heritage asset holds more than the records show — a house, an entire estate, an agricultural holding, an interior, a single piece of furniture. Our method moves each one through four pillars: know where you stand, read the asset, respond with discipline, resolve every detail. The value is already there. We bring it into the light.
Know where you stand
Before anything is researched in depth or drawn, three things are settled: what the building is, what protects it, and what you want to do. They are set out in a Preliminary Planning and Heritage Appraisal — a short, plain-English report that every commission starts from.
Aligns with RIBA Stage 0
The Brief
What you want to do, written down precisely. It will change — it usually does — but everything that follows is measured against it.
Designation Check
The official list entry, checked at source, and every other protection that might apply — conservation area, National Landscape, wildlife sites.
Consent Route
Which permissions the works need, from whom, and why — settled before a line is drawn.
First Actions
What is missing, and what to do first, in order — so the next pound spent is spent on the right thing.
Understand the asset
With the brief in place, we read the building properly — the building, the land it stands in, and the records that surround it. What makes it special is written down in a Statement of Heritage Significance: the foundation every later decision is tested against. Whether the asset is a listed house, an entire estate, an agricultural holding, an interior or a single piece of furniture, we read it before we touch it.
Aligns with RIBA Stages 1–2
Asset Story
The building's history, fabric and designations — what the archives show, and what they do not yet show. The story establishes everything that follows.
Significance Audit
What makes the asset singular — its architectural, historic, evidential and communal values, assessed honestly and recorded clearly.
Constraint Map
Planning, heritage, structural and ecological constraints, mapped before design begins — so nothing surprises the project later.
Hidden Value Scan
The latent potential others miss — underused space, consentable headroom, estate-wide opportunity. The value is already there; it has not yet been seen.
Reveal the value
A considered response that honours the listing and the life within it. The design is fixed in a Scope of Works, and its effect on the building is tested in a Heritage Impact Assessment — design and evidence moving together, so the scheme that is drawn is the scheme that is approved.
Aligns with RIBA Stages 2–3
Design Response
A scheme shaped by the reading — proportionate, reversible where it should be, ambitious where it can be. The hidden value, brought into the light.
Scope of Works
Exactly what will be done, element by element — the single list the impact assessment, the council and the builders all work from.
Heritage Impact
How the design affects what makes the building special, and why it is justified — written to the standard consenting authorities expect.
Value Proposition
The scheme tested against brief, budget and the asset's worth — so every decision is made with the whole picture in view.
Consent, then the finished building
The case is assembled in a Design and Access Statement and a Planning and Heritage Statement, and the applications are seen through the council. Then architecture, interiors, furniture and construction management — resolved end to end, under one roof. No handoffs, no seams: the practice that designed the work sees it built, furnished and complete.
Aligns with RIBA Stages 3–7
Consent
Pre-application advice, then listed building consent and planning applications, sequenced deliberately and seen through to a decision.
Technical Resolution
Detailed design and specification with conservation detailing at its core — drawn for the craftspeople who will build it.
Construction Management
Joiners, conservators and contractors under one direction, with site oversight from first opening-up to final decoration.
The Finished Asset
Interiors furnished, records completed, the asset performing as it should — its value revealed, realised and protected for what comes next.
One practice, from first idea to finished building.
If you own — or are considering — a listed or historic asset, the conversation starts with a reading, not a sales pitch. Architecture is personal: I prefer a real conversation to a long email. Call me on +44 (0)7737 745211, or send a WhatsApp voice note or a video of the property.