BlackBrick Studio: from a three-day office move to an AI-ready practice.

BlackBrick Studio is an ARB-registered architectural practice in Cardiff Bay: six people designing bespoke new builds and extensions across South Wales. They have been a Gotschna client since 2024, and their story shows what one team looking after everything actually looks like.

It started with a deadline.

BlackBrick were moving into a new office and needed it connected. We had internet up and running in three days, so the move went ahead on schedule, then fitted professional UniFi WiFi throughout the studio: proper coverage at every desk, not a home router doing its best.

Then the foundations.

We took over their Microsoft 365 and moved the practice onto Business Premium, used properly: every laptop enrolled and protected, security policies applied across the business, and one number to call when anything misbehaves. We have supported them day to day ever since, and because we know their setup, small things get fixed before they become big ones.

The archive problem.

An architecture practice never stops accumulating project files. Active projects live in SharePoint, but archiving completed ones there was getting expensive, so we fitted Synology storage in the studio for the archive, backed up to the cloud. It earns its keep twice: the same system holds an independent backup of their Microsoft 365, because the cloud does not back itself up.

Working smarter, not just safer.

When the team asked how to use AI properly, we did what we always do: tested before recommending. We put the three leading AI platforms head to head on a real BlackBrick brief, a 60-apartment pre-application design report, and judged the output the way architects would. Claude won on the things that mattered: finished, formatted documents ready to use, and correct references to Welsh planning policy rather than English. We rolled out Claude for the whole team, connected it to their Microsoft 365 so it works with their own project files, and wrote guides for the workflows the practice actually runs.

And when they wanted better project management, our recommendation was Microsoft Planner: software they already owned and were not using. Sometimes the best advice costs nothing.

Where it stands.

BlackBrick run a modern practice on technology that quietly does its job: fast connectivity, protected devices, an archive that costs sensible money, backups that are tested, and a team confident with tools most studios have not worked out yet. When something new comes up, they ask us first, and we would rather earn that question than any single sale.