Published13 July 2026Updated20 July 2026
We Built an App That Keeps You in the Room
Every JSA client now gets a login to their own project: latest drawings, your brief, where planning's got to, and what we did this week. Datum is our own in-house app, free on every project.
The best client experience we could possibly give you would be a permanent chair in our studio. You'd watch the drawings change, hear what the council said the moment we did, and never once wonder what happened on your project this week. It's not practical: you have a job, and we'd need considerably more chairs. So we built the next best thing. It's called Datum, it's been running quietly behind every JSA project for months, and today it goes on the record.
Your Whole Project, Open All Hours
Every JSA client now gets a login to their own project. Not a summary of it, not a monthly PDF that's out of date by the time you open it. The real thing, connected live to where the work lives.
Your drawings, current version, rather than the one marked FINAL_v7. Your brief, written down from the first proper conversation and kept there, so nothing drifts off course without you noticing. The surveyor's report, the engineer's calcs, the planning approvals, the quotes and the invoices. Which stage you're at, the last thing we did, the next thing we're doing, and a running feed of everything that's happened.
Our office shuts. Yours shuts at roughly the same time, which is the scheduling joke sitting underneath every client-architect relationship. Datum doesn't. Check it at 11pm on a Sunday, which is generally when the wondering happens anyway.
And “I'm fairly sure I asked for that months ago” stops being a conversation. You did ask. It's dated, you approved it from your inbox, and it can't evaporate somewhere between a phone call and a drawing.
If you'd rather never log in at all, a plain-English email lands in your inbox whenever something changes. Some clients live in Datum. Some have never opened it and would sooner ring us. Both are entirely fine.
Almost 25 Years of Hearing the Same Complaints
We've always called ourselves a client-first practice, putting your brief and your experience ahead of our own portfolio. Which is precisely what every other firm calls itself, so on its own it's worth about as much as the paper it's printed on. The question is what you do about it after twenty-four years of listening?
We have listened, and it's the same handful of frustrations nearly every time. The wait for the case officer, with no way of telling whether anyone's chasing or whether your file is under a pile. The quiet doubt about whether your architect wrote the brief down properly, or is running on memory and good intentions. The change you asked for last week that may or may not have landed anywhere. And the teeth-grinding business of hunting for the latest drawing in an inbox with four thousand unread emails.
None of that is a design problem. It's an information problem, and for two decades we solved it the way everyone solves it: phone calls, good memories, and luck. That works right up until the week it doesn't.
So we went shopping for software. Everything for sale is built for generic businesses, firms that sell a thing, invoice for the thing, and move on by Friday. An architecture project doesn't move like that. It moves in stages, drawing issues, planning applications, and long silent stretches where the council has your application and everybody stares at the ceiling. Nothing on the market had a field for the stare.
So we built our own. And it works beautifully.
Yes, We Chased Them. Here's the Receipts.
Planning is where you feel most in the dark, because for weeks on end the honest answer is “we're waiting.” From your side of it, waiting and being ignored look idl. They aren't the same thing, and now you can see which one you're in.
Datum logs the case officer's name, every time we rang, every time somebody picked up, and what they said when they did. It won't make the council move faster. Nothing makes the council move faster. But you'll never again have to take our word for it that we've been on their case.
Logging every chase also logs the weeks we didn't chase. That's occasionally humbling. It's also the entire point.
It Designs Nothing. That Part's Still Us.
Datum doesn't design anything. It won't ring the case officer, sketch a kitchen, or work out whether your ceiling can go up without meeting a steel. We still do all of that: the same people who answer the phone and sit at your kitchen table arguing about bricks and the building program.
Datum is the filing cabinet with a very good memory, not the architect. It holds no opinions on your extension. It makes sure nothing gets lost, forgotten or quietly fudged between the people who do.
It also isn't artificial intelligence, and won't be. Everyone and their accountant launched an app this year, and most are the same five features in a new logo with “AI” bolted to the roof. That's not a disclaimer, it's a decision. Software that remembers things is useful. Software with ideas about your house is a liability we've no interest in shipping.
Free, and Not in a Suspicious Way
Datum costs nothing. No fee, no tier, no “contact us for pricing.” Every JSA client, every project, every budget, and it stays that way.
The reason isn't generosity. The less time we spend hunting our own paperwork, the more we spend on your project. You get a better experience, we get a quieter Tuesday. Everybody wins, which is suspiciously rare in construction.
It's been quietly useful for months. As of today it's official, and every new client gets a login on day one. The full rundown lives on the Datum page if you want the lot rather than the highlights. Or ask on the next call. We're the ones who pick up.
Areas We Cover
JSA Architects Across the Midlands
We work with homeowners, developers, and landlords across the Midlands. Fees, planning authorities, and project types vary by location — find local insight and project examples for your area:
Architects in Derby → — Quarndon, Kirk Langley, Duffield, Allestree, Darley Abbey, Mickleover, Littleover
Architects in Nottingham → — The Park Estate, West Bridgford, Edwalton, Mapperley Park, Wollaton, Bramcote
Architects in Lichfield → — Shenstone, Little Aston, Four Oaks, Streetly, Aldridge, Walsall, Tamworth, Whittington
Architects in Solihull → — Knowle, Dorridge, Hampton in Arden, Shirley, Dickens Heath, Olton
Architects in Sutton Coldfield → — Four Oaks, Wylde Green, Boldmere, Mere Green, Streetly, Little Aston
faq's
Common Questions
Your current RIBA stage, what's happened, what's next, your drawings at their latest version, your brief, your documents, your quotes and invoices, and a full timeline of everything logged against your project. Including the planning chases, with dates.
No. It's free to every JSA client, on every project, at every budget. No tier, no upgrade, no catch. The less time we spend chasing our own paperwork, the more we spend on your project, which is the whole arrangement.
No. Some clients live in it. Some have never logged in and would rather have a phone call, which is a perfectly good way to run a project too. Datum is there when you want it, not another thing you're made to learn.
No app store, no software. Datum runs through a secure login in your browser.
Your project sits behind your own login, visible to you and your JSA team. Nobody else gets a look.
No, and it won't become one. Datum doesn't design, decide, or replace anybody on your project. It's a project-tracking app that keeps everything logged in one place. The people you speak to are the same people who've always done the work.
No. Datum is the bit in between: the filing cabinet with a very good memory, not the architect. Chris and the studio still do the designing, the calling, and the kitchen-table conversations.
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