FOR many during lockdown our homes became our haven with people spending more and more time at home.
From juggling work and childcare, people were staring at the same walls and examining their cramped little corners of kitchens and living rooms now competing for home office space.
However, while not everyone is blessed with DIY skills the thought of transforming or redesigning your home might be daunting with no idea where to start whether it be converting the attic into an office or turning the garage into a playroom.
Realising that there was a massive untapped market out there to help people create their own grand designs, HOKO – the homeowners architecture firm - was born. Set up in April 2019, it is going from strength to strength.
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And while many firms scaled back, furloughed staff and had to let people going following the pandemic, HOKO is bucking the trend and have taken people on as well as looking to create more positions.
At the heart of this architectural revolution is Danny Campbell. The dynamic and energetic architect is not afraid to shake things up a little, nor is he shunning away from residential architecture. Far from it, he sees it as the future and has built his whole brand around it. And investing in virtual reality technology, they are helping people on their way to their dream homes.
Home transformation under way
“Architecture could seem a bit off limits to people who might want to redesign their home,” said Mr Campbell, a Glasgow School of Art graduate. “There would be firms who wouldn’t even touch this type of work, but I thought differently about it.
“I set up HOKO to be the homeowners architect firm somewhere people would feel comfortable and confident to go ahead with a project.”
Even before lockdown business was going well, but with time spent at home and a time of economic uncertainty people are looking to adapt or renovate their homes more and more and Mr Campbell recognised this trend.
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It is why HOKO is preparing to employ more than 30 people across the UK in a bid to become the UK’s leader in residential architecture.
Opened up and revamped living space designed by HOKO
“We are dealing with people and people’s homes – to me that is what it is about,” added Mr Campbell, 30, who once had a design job at a zoo where it took a couple of attempts to secure the animals in one of their purpose-built enclosures. “You could present plans to someone to say this is how I think your home should look, but it has to be about them and what works for them.
“We visit our clients in their own homes and get a feel for what they want.”
Among the projects completed by HOKO in the past year include an extension to allow the homeowners to enjoy their garden more with two large viewing widows. In another project a family home had three living rooms but none with a clear focus. HOKO made the front room smaller and added a hallway through the back, creating a vista from the front door to the back garden.
The rear of the house became an open family space, the front room a new and the third living room became a snug.
One thing which has made a massive difference in helping people to take the next step to see what their home could look like is the firm’s use of virtual reality.
Homeowners are able to see how their abode could look with video images bringing it all to life.
Mr Campbell added: “We have been using this for some time and it is a great way to allow people to visualise how something will eventually look.”
HOKO designed home extension
Last year HOKO also secured a £400,000 boost from a group of investors, led by Warren Gee, the Chief Portfolio Officer at private equity firm Cairngorm Capital, Barclay Gilmour’s Donald Wilson and Executive Director of long-term equity investment business Saracen Fund managers, Graham Campbell.
HOKO has taken things a step further and has diversified to be able to help clients with contractors or even materials rather than hand over a set of drawings leaving it up to the homeowner to do the rest, called HOKO Build and HOKO Shop.
“It has been a great year for us and I think it will be an exciting one for us ahead,” he added.
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