Glasgow-based HOKO has set up six new studios in the north of Scotland and throughout England as it seeks to establish a nationwide foothold in the UK residential architecture market.
The move follows a £400,000 funding round in September of last year to finance the expansion of the business, which has developed a platform to remove administrative burdens and allow its architects to focus on customer service and design. Set up in April 2019, HOKO had what was described as its “best-ever” month in February, and is said to be on course to hit a target of 1,000 active projects by the end of this year.
The new studios in Inverness, Bristol, Birmingham, Brighton and the north and south of London take the number of HOKO project architects to 10, with total staff of more than 30. Back-end tasks such as the production of drawings from the architect’s sketches are handled by a central team of dedicated architectural technicians and engineers.
READ MORE: Scottish architect hiring after raising £400,000 in funding
“The traditional architecture process can be complicated, inaccessible, and out of line with advances in customer experience in other industries, and that’s why hundreds of homeowners are turning to HOKO,” founder Danny Campbell said.
“As news of our success spreads, we have seen rising demand for our brand of residential architecture across the UK, particularly during lockdown, and these new studios in these six areas provide the perfect platform to service that demand.”
The £400,000 of funding was secured from a group of investors led by Warren Gee of Cairngorm Capital, Barclay Gilmour’s Donald Wilson and Graham Campbell of Saracen Fund Managers. HOKO provides its services to owners looking to renovate, alter or extend their homes, with more than 450,000 UK home planning applications decided each year.
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