The Atlas specification · Issue 01
Written for designers.
Atlas is a construction company with one kind of client: the interior designer. This is how we work, and why — set out the way we would set out any specification.
A00 — Why Atlas exists
Interior designers are asked to deliver buildings. A scheme that took months to draw is handed to a string of subcontractors, each responsible for a part of it and none for the whole. The designer ends up holding it together on site, with their name on the result.
Atlas exists to take that weight. We become the single construction partner behind the design: one contract, one team, responsible for building it as drawn — so the designer can stay the designer.
The drawing is the brief. Everything after it is ours to solve.
A10 — Only for interior designers
Working for one kind of client shapes everything else — the way we price, the way we report, and who we answer to.
A10.1
We start from your drawings.
Our process begins with a designer’s drawings and specification, not a homeowner’s wish list.
A10.2
We never compete for your client.
Atlas does not design. There is nothing for us to sell your client except the build you have already drawn.
A10.3
Questions go to the right person.
Questions about the design come to you. Questions about building it stay with us.
A20 — Under your name
To your client, Atlas is your construction team. We work inside your brand, your correspondence and your relationship. Your client deals with you, as they always have; you deal with us; we deal with every trade.
Your clientDeals with you — as they always have.
Your studioDesigns, decides and presents the work.
AtlasBuilds it, under your name, on one contract.
Specialist tradesAppointed and managed by Atlas.
A30 — The relationship
A good partnership is written down. These are the terms we hold ourselves to — and the few we ask of you.
What you can expectAtlas
- 01One named contact, from pricing to handover
- 02Questions raised early, in writing, with the drawing reference
- 03Your drawings treated as fixed — no quiet substitutions
- 04Every decision that touches the design referred back to you
- 05Regular reporting in a format you can forward to your client
What we askYour studio
- 01Drawings and specification as complete as the stage allows
- 02Timely answers when we refer a design decision
- 03One point of contact in your studio
A40 — The specialist network
Atlas maintains a vetted network of more than two hundred specialists. They are appointed to each project by Atlas, work to Atlas’s site standards, and answer to the Atlas site team — not to you, and never to your client.
Trade register — by layer of the build
- Approvals
- Planning permissions, Building control, Health & safety documentation
- Structure
- Construction
- Services
- Plumbing, Electrical, HVAC
- Joinery
- Carpentry
- Finish
- Specialist trades, Decorating
- Site
- Site management
A50 — Coordination
On a finished interior, the order of work is invisible. On site it is everything: services before boarding, boarding before plaster, joinery measured in the room it will be fitted to. Atlas sets the programme, holds the trades to it, and moves it — with you — when the design needs time.
- Survey and set-out: weeks 1 to 3
- Strip-out and construction: weeks 2 to 8
- Plumbing, first fix: weeks 5 to 10
- Electrical, first fix: weeks 5 to 11
- HVAC: weeks 6 to 12
- Carpentry and boarding: weeks 10 to 16
- Plaster: weeks 14 to 19
- Joinery installation: weeks 16 to 24
- Specialist trades: weeks 18 to 24
- Decoration: weeks 22 to 28
- Second fix: weeks 24 to 28
- Snagging and handover: weeks 28 to 30
A60 — Quality control
Quality is checked at the points where it can still be changed. Work does not move past a hold point until it has been checked.
- H1
Set-out against the drawings
Walls, openings and levels are checked against the drawings before anything is built. Discrepancies go to the designer as questions.
- H2
First fix, before it is closed
Services are inspected and photographed in the open wall before boarding — the record stays with the project.
- H3
Samples and joinery sign-off
Finishes and joinery are approved by the designer before installation, room by room where the programme allows.
- H4
Snagging, closed before handover
One snagging list, shared with the designer, closed before the client moves in.
A70 — Documentation & compliance
Permissions, inspections and certificates are prepared and managed by Atlas, and handed over with the finished project — so you can hand them to your client.
| Document | When | Applies |
|---|---|---|
| Planning permission or listed building consent | Before work starts | Where required |
| Building control completion certificate | At completion | Where notifiable |
| Health & safety file | At handover | Every project |
| Electrical installation certificates | At completion | Where electrical work is done |
| Gas safety and commissioning records | At completion | Where applicable |
| Warranties, manuals and finishes schedule | At handover | Every project |
A80 — Philosophy
- A80.1The drawing is the brief.
- A80.2Questions, not compromises.
- A80.3Invisible, not absent.
— Atlas, London