Concept Design
A concept is the first time a project knows what it is. Before the concept, you have a brief, a site, an investor, an ambition. After the concept, you have a document that explains, in spatial form, what the project will become and why. The strongest concepts make every decision that follows easier. The weakest concepts get redrawn three times before anyone agrees on what is being built.
Concept design at Lex te Loo Architects is the document on which an investment decision can be made. Read the territory, find the organising element, write the sequence, fix the envelope. Fixed scope, fixed price, fixed timeline.
The problem we solve
Most concepts fail not because the idea is wrong, but because the document does not carry the weight required of it. The investment committee asks for a financial envelope; the concept replies with a vision. The chief architect asks for an АГО-ready package; the concept replies with renderings. The contractor asks for a buildable strategy; the concept replies with mood boards. Each of these failures is a misread of what a concept is for.
A concept that earns the next stage answers three questions in one document: what the place will become, why this answer is the right answer here, and what the next year of work looks like. The Geological Method is built to write that document.
What you get
Concept
A concept booklet of 50 to 100 pages, depending on territory size. Site reading, organising-element diagram, program structure, sequence diagram, strategic massing, plans and sections, technical and economic indicators (ТЭП), visualisations, and a one-page summary the investment committee can read in five minutes.
АГО (optional)
If the project requires АГО, we extend the concept into the architectural-urban appearance package the Moscow Committee for Architecture (or regional equivalent) can sign without remarks. Same team, same logic, no handoff seams.
Авторское сопровождение
10% of fee through delivery. Quarterly reviews. The right to intervene when the territorial logic is being diluted. A retained authority over the concept until the project meets the territory.
Timeline
| Phase | Duration | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Concept | 8 to 14 weeks | concept booklet, plans, sections, ТЭП, investment-committee summary |
| АГО (optional) | 10 to 16 weeks | the package the city's chief architect can sign |
| Авторское сопровождение | project lifetime, 10% | design supervision, quarterly reviews, right to intervene |
We quote a fixed price within five working days of the first call. No estimates, no time-and-materials.
Recent work
- Astrakhan Hills — Astrakhan, Russia (2024)
- Novosibirsk Science Park — Akademgorodok, Novosibirsk, Russia (2024+)
- City Park of Nizhny Novgorod — Sovetsky district, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia (2025)
- BrainPort Tower — Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2016)
- Moscow Passage — Moscow, Russia (2018)