Practice / Decisions & Development
Decisions & Development
Eight decisions that connect the tools and workflows in this portfolio with the practice needs and findings behind them.
why, not just what
Priorities, data & delivery
Inside the practice
01Practice priorities & technology selection
Practice-wideIn use / Ongoing
People & focus
Partners, the AI Group and the wider office, with priorities shaped around practice needs and available development time.
Decision & contribution
Prioritised immediate visual and information needs. Adopted OmniChat and developed bespoke agents and workflows around it. Tested and adopted Krea and Weave for visual work, developing reusable templates and custom workflows around project requirements.
Current position
These platforms and workflows are used across practice projects, from concept exploration to image editing and upscaling. Established tools provide a shared base, with bespoke development for more specific requirements.
Learning & next steps
Review recurring pain points with users and develop workflows into agents where useful. Keep assessing established platforms alongside bespoke development, with further applications in marketing and practice finances.
Related development OmniChat agents and workflows; Pinterest channel; visual platform trials; CRM options and additional project data.
02Structured data & practice knowledge
Practice-wideIn use / Ongoing
People & focus
Partners and project leads help identify useful information and fill gaps in records for fee preparation, marketing and project knowledge.
Decision & contribution
Started with a basic CRM export and gradually extended it into a fuller repository for each project. Collected and structured information in batches around specific applications, keeping the CRM as the base for website, marketing and commercial development.
Current position
The Fee Calculator uses the project library for benchmarking and comparison. Its development exposed missing information and showed what needed collecting. The same structured data supports the KSR website refresh.
Learning & next steps
Enrich the dataset as applications expose new requirements. Extend historic records, introduce inflation-adjusted fee comparisons and add criteria for distinctive project characteristics and complexity.
Related development Leading the KSR website refresh, using structured data for consistent project descriptions, SEO/GEO and wider marketing content.
03Bespoke tools & agentic workflow development
Project & team-specificFamilies in use / Builder in development
People & focus
Architects and the Interiors team, with different levels of confidence configuring nested families and a need for more accessible controls.
Decision & contribution
Modelled the door and wardrobe family suites and developed supporting pyRevit tools through AI-assisted coding. User discussions shaped Door Builder: an application for configuring custom families from selected library components.
Current position
The family suites are used by the team. Door Builder remains in development, focused on configuration behaviour and features before interface refinement and optional additions such as a larger preview.
Learning & next steps
A flexible library also needs an accessible way to configure it. Continue testing configurations and developing a shared parameter matrix to support more consistent tool and agent outputs.
Related development Family Flex, Parameter Usage and Family Link utilities; shared parameter matrix; family generation from templates, rules, drawings and images.
04Agent development & integration
Project & team-specificPrototype / In development
People & focus
Recurring modelling requests from the team, alongside tests of new ChatGPT capabilities, prompted a connected family-generation workflow.
Decision & contribution
Connected an information-retrieval agent with a family-creation agent using reviewed product references, modelling rules and examples. Began with basic components such as handles, then tested the approach on more complex nested window families.
Current position
The first batch produced 20 draft families. Review identified component movement, alignment and parameter-control faults, informing revisions to the instructions. Tests on complex windows were promising; the system remains in development.
Learning & next steps
Successful generation needs behavioural verification. Repair and test a different set of handles against revised instructions, then repeat the first batch. Extend testing to other geometry before wider use.
Related development Shared parameter matrix; Revit modelling guidelines; reference requirements; checks for dimensions, component relationships and family behaviour.
Design, learning & adoption
Experimentation, visualisation, training, sharing
05Concept exploration & creative systems
Independent R&DIn use / Ongoing
People & focus
Self-directed design exploration, testing connections between narrative, images and different ways to develop and communicate an architectural or interior concept.
Decision & contribution
Used a dedicated hero image as a shared visual reference. Connected narrative, materials, atmosphere, alternative views, sketches and motion through a modular process, so each output builds on the same concept.
Current position
The experiments have produced a backlog of over 400 independent project studies, with selected work shared on social media. Connected outputs explore how one concept develops across different forms of representation.
Learning & next steps
Maintain coherence while letting the idea evolve. Generated views remain concept studies that need interpretation, post-production and review, particularly where new views change geometry or design intent.
Related development Story narrative, style creation, architectural photographer and videographer agents; modular visual workflows in Weave and Krea.
06Visual communication & design agentic workflows
Practice-wideIn use / Ongoing
People & focus
The visualisation team and project teams, working across concept exploration, client presentations and finished visuals.
Decision & contribution
Tested platforms and visual approaches around the degree of control required. Used open-ended imagery for early discussions and more constrained workflows for detailed image and video tasks, guided by project references and design intent.
Current position
Teams use a shared library of workflow templates across project work. Applications range from custom cover images and presentation visuals to audio, video and targeted social media content.
Learning & next steps
Keep workflows modular and based on transferable principles. Review outputs, models and platforms as capabilities change, so methods evolve without rebuilding the whole process around each new tool.
Related development Inpainting and object removal; clay-to-render pipelines; render refresh; interior restyling; video narratives and post-production.
07Training & practice adoption
Practice-wide · Project & team-specificOngoing
People & focus
Colleagues with different levels of experience, alongside partner-specific presentations addressing wider practice responsibilities and decisions.
Decision & contribution
Structured CPDs progressively, from introductory sessions to focused workflow demonstrations. Used recurring questions, project requests and individual support to shape later guidance, giving time to apply each stage before introducing more.
Current position
CPDs, practical assistance and reference material support application to project tasks. Partner presentations connect research with practice decisions, while follow-up questions show where more explanation or support is needed.
Learning & next steps
Allow time for application and testing between sessions. Use the difficulties colleagues meet to refine the next session, simplify guidance and build resources around actual project work.
Related development NotebookLM research; visual briefings; BIM & Beyond updates; BIM and AI Q&A notes; Obsidian knowledge resources.
08Knowledge sharing & publishing
Practice & industry-wideOngoing
People & focus
Colleagues, design and technology peers beyond the practice, and professionals from other disciplines.
Decision & contribution
Turned experimentation into reusable guidance and shared practical lessons through The Prompted Interior, Substack, social media, a university talk and the Figma Weave Artist Collective.
Current position
The Prompted Interior has been published and sold. Articles, posts and presentations document methods alongside results, extending the record of experimentation and opening discussion with other designers.
Learning & next steps
The volume of experiments calls for more consistent content and knowledge management. Continue developing the Obsidian system to organise research, references, workflow notes and material for future publication.
Related development Substack, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn content; industry events and seminars; continued research into design and technical AI workflows.