In our next talk on November 20th, Charlie Caswell and Adam Dainow will share their story of why they decided to leave architecture to become developers establishing Caswell&Dainow in 2017.
With a passion for good design and a keen eye for the bottom line, their business model is centred on unlocking small, often tricky sites in London and the south-east where theycan afford to invest in good design. Crucial to their success is winning planning approval within a year and then selling the site to a developer to build out.
Adam and Charlie will talk about how they fund sites and borrow funds and why the challenge is finding a site “where they can afford to invest in good design.”
They currently have a data base of 30,000 sites and look at around 500 new sites each month, mainly inLondon but also in the south-east with ambitions to go further afield, such as university cities and coastal towns.
The duo made a decision early on to employ architects rather than take on the design themselves and are currently working with six practices including GPAD, Novak Hiles and Gouldstone & Co. They describe spotting new talent as one of the most rewarding aspects of being a developer.
The series is aimed at architects who would like to know more about the opportunities and challenges around being an independent developer, including spotting creative solutions that a non-architect developer will often miss.
Amanda Baillieu and Gus Zogolovitch set up Developer Collective in 2018 to teach professionals how to become design-led property developers and give them the contacts and resources to deliver their projects. Their book How to be an ArchitectDeveloper was published in September '23.
The talk will be followed by networking drinks and nibbles.
This event is supported The Building Society.
