DB3

DB3 is an award-winning, AJ100, employee-owned architectural and building services consultancy headquartered in Leeds, with studios in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff and Aberystwyth. Tracing its roots to 1883 through legacy practices including Essex, Goodman & Suggitt, Kitching & Co and HMR Burgess, the business rebranded as DB3 Group in 2020 and transitioned to majority employee ownership via an employee ownership trust in 2022. The group employs more than 75 technical staff across six business units: DB3 Architecture & Design, DB3 Building Services Engineering, DB3 Net Zero, DB3 Professional Services, Formation3D and the online home-improvement practice Home & Maker. DB3 delivers RIBA-chartered architecture, urban design and masterplanning alongside CIBSE-chartered mechanical and electrical engineering, building surveying, principal designer, NEC supervisor, clerk of works, design management and aerial drone inspection services. The firm uses BIM and digital tools for design coordination and visualisation and works across commercial offices, data centres, education, healthcare, residential, industrial and manufacturing, retail, sports and leisure, conservation and heritage, energy and waste, HRB remediation and regeneration schemes. Clients include major UK and international brands in food and non-food retail, hospitality, industrial processing and sport, and DB3 has delivered multi-site roll-out programmes as well as large single assets such as a major Nestlé production facility and temporary works at Hinkley Point C. Through DB3 Net Zero and a specialist Energy & Waste team, the group focuses on low-carbon and energy-from-waste projects and has signed the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge. Services cover whole-life, operational and embodied carbon, building performance in use, compliance, Passivhaus design and user wellbeing, underpinned by experience on more than 40 UK energy and waste facilities including the new North London Energy Recovery Facility.