Architecture
Commercial architecture in Harare.
A commercial space has a job. It has to move customers through it, hold staff for eight hours a day, meet whatever regulates your industry, and cost less to run than it earns. We design for that first and make it good-looking second, which is usually how it ends up good-looking anyway.
The commercial brief is different
A house is designed around a family. A commercial space is designed around a transaction.
Where does a customer come in, what do they see, how far do they walk before somebody serves them, where does stock arrive without crossing the customer route, where do staff eat, and what happens to all of that when you are busy rather than empty.
Get the flow wrong and no amount of finish will fix it, because the building will fight the business every day it trades. That is the part of the design we spend the most time on.
What we design
Offices and workspaces
Open plan, cellular, or the mix most businesses actually need. Meeting rooms that get used, circulation that does not send visitors past the accounts department, and a reception that says what the business is before anybody speaks.
Retail and showrooms
Shop layout is merchandising. Entrance, sightlines, the route a customer takes, where the till sits, and how stock is replenished during trading hours. Signage and shopfront design sit here too, and it is one of the places where doing the brand and the building together is a real advantage rather than a sales line.
Restaurants, bars and hospitality
The hardest commercial brief, because a kitchen is a technical problem, a dining room is an emotional one, and they share a wall. Front of house, back of house, service routes, extraction, seating density against comfort, and outdoor space that works in Harare's climate for most of the year.
Clinics and healthcare
Surgeries, dental practices, consulting rooms and small private clinics. Patient flow, waiting areas that do not feel like queues, consulting room privacy, clean and dirty separation, and accessibility. Healthcare carries regulatory requirements that shape the plan from the start rather than getting added at the end.
Schools and education
Classrooms, admin blocks, halls and phased campus growth. Most school projects are additions to a site that is already running, so the design has to work around a term calendar and children on site.
Industrial and warehousing
Workshops, storage and light industrial. Simpler architecturally, and unforgiving on the practical detail: vehicle access, turning circles, floor loading, height, and how goods actually move through the building.
What is included
- A consultation and a written brief covering how the business operates
- Site analysis: access, parking, services, orientation and constraints
- Space planning and circulation, which is the real work
- Concept design, in plan and in three dimensions
- Floor plans, elevations and sections
- A full set of council submission drawings
- Two rounds of revisions
- Engineering coordinated in-house, or with your own consultants if you have them
What it costs
- Small commercial A shop, a small office, a consulting suite
- $700 to $1,800
- Medium A full office floor, a restaurant, a clinic
- $1,800 to $3,800
- Large Multi-storey, multi-tenant or campus scale
- Quoted
Starting prices. Final quote after a free consultation.
30% deposit before work starts, 70% on completion. Files and access are released on payment in full.
How long it takes
Concept in under two weeks and a drawing set in about four, the same as a house. A fit-out inside an existing building is often faster. A multi-tenant or campus project is not, and we tell you which yours is at the first conversation.
What we need from you
Bring what you have. The gaps are usually the useful part of the first conversation.
- The premises or the stand, and the lease terms if you are taking one
- What the business does, and how it trades through a normal day
- Staff numbers now, and what you expect in three years
- Any regulatory requirements specific to your industry
- Your budget for the fit-out, not only for the drawings
Common questions
How early should I involve an architect?
Before you sign the lease or buy the stand, if you can. Half an hour looking at a space before you commit to it can tell you whether it will hold the business you are planning. That conversation is free, and it has saved clients from premises that would never have worked.
Can you work with a building I am already leasing?
Yes. Fit-outs and change of use are common commercial work, and they carry their own constraints, because you are designing inside somebody else's structure and somebody else's lease conditions.
Who handles the engineering?
Engineering is handled in-house. If you already have structural, electrical or mechanical consultants you trust, we work with them instead. Either way it is coordinated as part of the drawing set rather than left for you to manage between suppliers.
Start here
Tell us what you want to build
A house, a brand, a website, a system, or all of it. Send a message and we will map out the path from idea to reality.