DATUMDesign system 1.0
The riverside plot on day one at dusk: an excavator under a green-white work light on open ground.The same view at handover: a six-storey concrete-frame building with lit windows over the river.

Every building is measured from the same line.

±0.00Foundry Yard, day oneFoundry Yard, handover

Display, Archivo at 62% width, 500

Raise the frame.

Text, Schibsted Grotesk 400

Columns and slabs are cast in place, one floor at a time, with the crane and the deliveries planned around each pour.

Level, metres from the datum

Top of frame+21.60

  • Basalt#0D1210
  • Carbon#1B201D
  • Formwork#123327
  • Worklight#8FE3B0
  • Limestone#E4E0D6
  • Paper#ECE9E1
  • Concrete#A9A79E
  • Ink#151A17
The empty yard from the site camera, the footprint marked with stakes and string.
Site cameraThe plot from one fixed camera, the same frame at every stage. Progress, programmes, case studies.
An excavator bucket in dark soil under a green-tinted work light.
WorklightThe work itself at night: one machine, one action, one light. Interludes, process, loaders.
The finished building at blue hour with its windows lit.
HandoverThe finished building and its materials, at dusk or in daylight. Projects, closings, limestone pages.
See the projects
On siteHanded over

Buttons

A body and a key, joined like formwork. Hover opens the chamfer and slides the key one module; pressing closes the joint.

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Primary, large

Primary

Ghost

Small and medium, 44 and 48 px

Key buttons

Working, and a text link

Fields

A raised surface on a rule. Focus pulls a chamfer into the corner and lights the rule; a fault points at the field and says what to change.

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Text

Select

With a unit

Fault

Set later

Long text

Selection

Radios are level markers. Checkboxes take a chamfered block, the switch a key that travels and fills.

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Segmented

Level radio

Checkboxes and switch

Phase switch

The system's own switch. Day one is the site at night under the work light; handover is limestone in daylight. Pictures that share a camera swap frames, and copy written for one phase gives way to the other.

Tabs and tables

Tabs stand on the datum and the chosen one rises a step. Arrow keys move between them. Levels are written the way a surveyor writes them.

Formation level
−4.20
Sheet piles
186 m
Raft
1.2 m thick

Schedule table

Foundry Yard programme
StageStartsWeeksLevelStatus
Setting out and shoring3 March 20254±0.00Done
Excavation and raft31 March 202510−4.20Done
Frame, ground to roof9 June 202520+21.60On site
Envelope27 October 202516+24.00Planned
Finishes and handover16 February 202610±0.00Planned

Project index

Northgate Library: a deep concrete colonnade over a stone forecourt.
Kiln Wharf at night: a grid of lit windows over the quay.
Ropewalk Studios: a new concrete frame inside a kept brick warehouse.
Saltmarsh School under construction on reclaimed ground at sunset.

Status and progress

On site uses the work light. Caution and fault are lamps, not decoration; progress is drawn as footings and a pour.

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Status tags

On siteHanded overPlannedPour on holdCrane stood down

Pour meter

Frame100 %
Envelope62 %
Float left in the programme4 days

Footing steps

  1. SurveyDone
  2. PlanDone
  3. BuildWeek 34
  4. Hand overWeek 61

Alerts

Road closure

Mill Lane is closed from 6 to 9 June

The mobile crane lifts the roof plant. Walk along the river path instead; it stays open.

Loader

Setting out the site

Level−4.20

Cards and plates

A card is a framed photograph and its caption, not a box. Linked cards open the steel angles one module. A phase plate keeps one camera across two dates.

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The empty yard from the site camera, the footprint marked with stakes and string.The same camera at handover: the finished building with young trees along the river path.
Day one, 3 March 2025Handover, 27 April 2026Site camera 2, the same frame since the first stake.

Site camera 2

One camera, two dates.

Flip the phase. The handover frame wipes across the day-one frame from the left, the way the building closed in.

Survey pins

The finished building at blue hour, its windows lit, the river path in front.
River wall

The old quay was surveyed, repaired and kept. It now carries the riverside walk.

Workshops at street level

A double-height ground floor opens onto the walk, where the casting shed once stood.

Exposed concrete frame

Columns and slabs cast in place, six storeys, left visible on every facade.

Dialogs and toasts

Dialogs are native, with two chamfers, and return focus where it came from. A toast's time drains through four footings; hovering holds it.

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Try them

Toast

Enquiry sent

A project manager replies within two working days.

Dialog

Enquiry

Tell us about your site.

A plot, a brief or only a question. A project manager replies within two working days.

Enquiry

Tell us about your site.

A plot, a brief or only a question. This demo sends nothing.

Navigation

The bar steps aside while you read down and returns on any scroll up. Chapters live on a level staff; on phones, in a bar at the bottom that opens the menu.

Bar with brand, links and action

Phones: chapter bar

03 / 05 Structure

The staff marks the chapter you are in and reads its level. Choose a mark to see the readout change.

DATUM
  1. 01Ground
  2. 02Groundworks
  3. 03Structure
  4. 04Completion
  5. 05Contact