Services
Selective residential design and documentation for homes with more asked of them.
Blencowe Design is best suited to projects where the design needs to be beautiful, buildable and technically resolved — not simply drawn quickly for approval.
Best suited to
- Custom new homes with a clear design and performance ambition.
- Major alterations and additions where the existing house needs careful thinking.
- Passivhaus and high-performance homes, including PHPP-informed design work.
- Sustainable and healthy homes with attention to comfort, moisture and durability.
- Complex sites, compact sites and projects needing strong documentation quality.
- Clients who value early decisions, clear drawings and practical construction logic.
Not the right fit for
- Drafting-only jobs where design and detailing sit outside the brief.
- Volume-style homes or projects intended to copy a standard plan.
- Approval-only work with little scope to resolve the building properly.
- Projects where the lowest fee is the main priority.
It's about giving each project the time and care it needs to be worth building.
What the work can include
Design support from early feasibility through to construction documentation.
Residential design
New homes, alterations, additions and infill dwellings shaped around site, brief, planning constraints, light, privacy and daily use.
Documentation
Clear architectural drawing sets prepared for approvals, consultant coordination and construction-stage decision making.
Performance detailing
Airtightness strategy, weather tightness, insulation continuity, thermal bridge-aware construction and buildable junctions.
Passivhaus design support
From PHPP-informed high-performance homes through to projects targeting full Passivhaus certification — see Toronto House as an example.
Healthy homes
Design decisions that support comfort, stable temperatures, good ventilation, moisture control and robust material junctions.
Builder-ready logic
Documentation that respects how buildings are actually put together, reducing ambiguity around sequencing, structure and envelope work.
Technical focus
The details that make performance last.
Durability starts with keeping water out, allowing assemblies to dry, controlling air leakage and avoiding avoidable thermal weak points. These are design decisions as much as construction decisions.
The aim is not complexity for its own sake. It is a simpler, calmer home because the difficult parts have been thought through before site.