Welcome back to our latest Q&A series. Join us this week as we share our design focused interview with Brendan Geraghty, Director & Founder, Centred Architecture.
Centred Architects mission will be to create exceptional value for the clients and their customers. CA is doing this by starting the design journey from the centre of the client’s business plan and investment thesis, implementing lessons from our deep residential experience to creatively craft efficient architecture around customer experiences in order to create community and value.
With over a decade of experience in Build to Rent, Centred Architecture has been working in this sector with over 6000 units planned for delivery in the UK and Ireland. Our Brand and Design Guides have assisted projects to create a sustainable design with the customer experience at the centre.
About
Brenden Geraghty BA (Hons), Dip Arch, RIBA, ARB
Brendan is an Architect / Design and Development Strategist with multiple sector experience and sixteen years in senior project and business roles. His specialism is the residential sector, and he has been active in the Build to Rent (BtR) market since 2011 and recognised as a BtR thought leader. Brendan demonstrates a unique ability to combine deep generalist and broad specialist knowledge, creating structured development and consumer centric BtR strategies integrating the principles of consumer culture with investment requirements.
An advocate for Modern Methods of Construction, Brendan has a good track record in designing and delivering healthcare, education and residential buildings using various offsite technologies. The most notable of which is a bespoke BTR volumetric design for tall buildings.
Brendan combines strong conceptual and creative intelligence with a solid practical bias. His strategic and analytical thinking allows ‘big picture’ thinking to be supported by appropriate levels of granular detail to create inspiring and deliverable solutions. He has completed the University of Cambridge, Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Post Graduate Diploma in Sustainable Business, which provided him with a strong foundation for setting and delivering ESG goals in the Built Environment.
Whilst active on BTR projects, Brendan has been appointed by the UKAA to manage content delivery for their BTR Best Practice Guide.
Q: Given the unprecedented 24 months we’ve seen. How do you think the future of BtR design changed due to COVID?
Brendan: Generically BtR responded to Covid very well. There was very little impact on rent levels and the sector worked hard to engage with residents and to support them through the process.
The fundamental design requirement for BtR is that it is customer focused and it must deliver a good product and good service.
The future of BtR design will increasingly be service and customer experience led. The provision of well-considered amenity, both internally and externally allowed BtR operators to adjust to meet the demands of Covid and support their customers – this design flexibility is essential. Private and public external space was prized by customers during Covid, I do not see this reequipment disappearing.
Q: What are the first design steps you take when trying to ensure a BtR development contributes to its wider community, as opposed to segregating tenants from it?
Brendan: BtR and local communities are never mutually exclusive, and both can benefit from each other’s existence. The designing ‘BtR in community’ (that is both internal and external communities) starts with research. Understanding your customer is critical – who are you trying to attract and what are the features and services that must be designed in to help them create a ‘happy home’. This is the first design question.
The next question is what community assets exist around the BtR site that would be potentially attractive to the BtR residents. Understanding the local context is very important. This must extend beyond the analysis of the local physical characterises, amenities and infrastructure assets, and into the social and economic dynamics of the local community. There will certainly be opportunities to engage with local community groups and business and draw them towards the new BtR community e.g. discounts at local shops.
Early and detailed analysis of the local community can materially influence the BtR proposition and in turn the design brief and range or scale of amenities and services that will be offered.
Understanding BtR customers and the communities in which they are located and allowing this knowledge to influence the design of the building and services offered, is the key to successful BtR and good neighbourliness.
Q: BtR development design is forever evolving to match the current trends of today’s tenants. What do you see as being the key design trends that will emerge for the BtR sector over the next 5 years?
Brendan: The digital revolution will continue to have a profound influence on BtR as its customers expect very resilient internet access with increasing numbers of customer devices being connected to the internet. BtR buildings will be judged on how stability, ease of access and speed of the digital ecosystem.
As ESG rises all corporate agenda’s need to capture building, operational and customer data and report on it will rapidly increase. Residential real estate has a poor track record in measuring the performance of its assets and their impact on customers. The need to set and report on ESG goals, with better balance between E, S and G reporting, will increase. At the moment reporting on the E of ESG is most understood, however I predict the S of ESG will soon become as important as the industry begins to measure the impact of its products and services on its customers and their well-being.
BtR sector research is beginning to show the value of community to BtR residents. Operators will begin to recognise that having a strong BtR community is good for business, that is part of a customer acquisition and retention strategy and that it needs ongoing investment and management. Design briefs will evolve to better reflect the importance of operational and service criteria.
Q: We have seen a rise in health & wellbeing amenities being offered to tenants. How do you think these can be provided at a manageable cost to the investor? And how do you think we can measure this?
Brendan: Our understanding of wellbeing will continue to grow and evolve with demand coming from BtR customers and from the increasing influence of robust ESG reporting, led by funders. Providing spaces and services in BtR buildings for wellbeing related activities e.g. yoga or meditation will be germane and may be influenced by trends over time.
Amenities designed for flexibility and adaptability is already a standard feature of design briefs. Operators will need to stay close to customers to understand how to evolve their amenity offer. What is more fundamental is the need to measure the impact of our buildings and the services we provide on our customers.
This type of social impact analysis need not be expensive and will provide key insights into positive and negative influences on our customers, their behaviour and overall wellbeing. This will lead to improvements in design and service provision as well as providing insights into emerging customer needs.
Q: We’re seeing an ever-increasing demand from the government, investors, and local councils for the BtR industry to contribute to handling the climate crisis. How do you see the design of a BtR evolving to match this requirement and is it possible to design a carbon positive building?
Brendan: Responding to the Climate Crises is all of our responsibility and it is going to have a profound impact on design, construction and the operation of BtR buildings. We will see additional change being required once the full import of the Building Safety Bill in known.
Keeping people safe and minimising carbon production will come to dominate early design thinking with building infrastructure and operational requirements having a much greater influence on design.
BtR buildings will need to prove their safety and carbon credentials, and this will result in far more upfront design and engineering work being necessary to meet planning, construction and investment requirements.
Given the carbon footprint of the construction supply chain, I do not think we will ever see a carbon positive building, but we will see a carbon positive building form an ‘in-use’ perspective. However, this will take a few project cycles to deliver and will require closer collaboration between all involved in the design and delivery of buildings.
Design strategies will be informed by carbon accounting as we look for opportunities to reduce energy consumption, generate or store energy on site, increase the recycling of buildings and materials and manage the carbon footprint of the supply chain.
Architects and designers will need to absorb all of these often-competing requirements in their design work and use design as a force for good to help to change human behaviour and improve the wellbeing of the planet and its people through thoughtful, carbon efficient and attractive buildings and places.
Q: Do you have any closing thoughts and/or personal opinions on the direction of the design of developments within this sector?
Brendan: BtR will continue to pioneer customer centricity in residential real estate. As our understanding of the economic value of the customer matures it will inform and evolve development and design briefs.
Service and operational requirements will play a much stronger role in defining a successful BtR building from asset value, customer satisfaction and Climate Crises perspectives.
A Big Thank You to Brendan Geraghty for taking the time to respond to our questions.
If you have any other questions regarding this interview, you can reach out to Centred Architecture here. More information about Centred Architecture can be found on their website.
Our content calendar has enough free space for one or two more contributors to this series. If you feel you would offer value and have experience in build to rent investment, design, management or ESG – contact us here.
Thank you for reading.