Georgina Mullen explores the power of ‘built-in’ building control expertise for architects
There is a phrase I’ve heard far too often in our industry: “We’ll try and get that past building control”.
I heard it frequently when I first started working on projects in England, and every time, it made me wince.
In Ireland, where I developed my experience as an Assigned Certifier within a more rigorous regulatory framework, such an approach would not be acceptable.
Compliance requirements leave little room for interpretation or compromise. With the introduction of the Building Safety Act, a more disciplined approach is now being steadily reinforced across the industry in England & Wales.
To be clear, the question is no longer whether a more rigorous culture is coming – it is already in place. The real question is whether practices are embedding that rigour from day one, or still treating building control as something to deal with towards the end of a project.
In my opinion, building control expertise should sit inside an architectural practice, not arrive as a late-stage consultant.
When compliance thinking is embedded at concept stage, it stops being a design constraint and starts being a compass. Fire strategy, life safety, accessibility, energy performance – all these factors need to be on the desk from the moment a client brief arrives.
The effect, when you get this right, is transformative. Our target at Hyphen is for no more than 5-10% of building control submissions to attract queries. The fundamental safety elements should always be right. That is not perfectionism in my mind, it is simply professionalism. And it is the difference between a project that moves forward with confidence and one that stalls for months while issues are redesigned after work has started on site.
Grenfell changed everything. It had to. The Building Safety Act’s duty on clients, architects and contractors to now demonstrate compliance throughout a project, not simply at conclusion, reflects what good practitioners already knew – that building safety is not a tick-box exercise.
This is particularly true in retrofit and conservation work. Early collaboration is not just good practice, it is the only realistic way to manage genuine unknowns. You can open a wall expecting one thing and find something entirely different. A staircase that does not comply. A steel beam with no fire cladding.
You cannot design your way around mysteries you have not yet uncovered. What you need to do is create the right conditions – through early contractor involvement, transparent information sharing and robust documentation – that means discoveries become challenges solved together, not crises absorbed alone.
Compliance and design excellence are not opposites. Some of my most rewarding moments in my career have come from delivering something genuinely beautiful that I can say, hand on heart, is fully compliant and will stand the test of time.
That is a win-win for everyone. But it only happens when you have done the hard thinking early enough to find the right solution.
Building control is not a hurdle to clear at the end of a race. It is the standard we should all be running towards, from the very first step.
Main image: Georgina Mullen is a director at Hyphen, specialising in conservation, retail and building control compliance across the UK and Ireland
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