About the practice
Architecture and planning, under one roof.
Dames A+P is an integrated architecture and planning practice in Medstead, Hampshire. Most firms offer one discipline or the other. We deliver both, as a single, coordinated team, from concept to permission.
Who we are
Two chartered professionals, working in step.
We founded Dames A+P on a simple conviction: design and planning should never be handled in isolation. When an architect and a planner sit at the same table from the first site visit, decisions are sharper, risks surface earlier, and projects move forward with fewer surprises.
Between us we hold both the RIBA and RTPI charterships, architecture and planning, side by side. We work predominantly across Hampshire and the wider South East, including the South Downs and New Forest National Parks.
Director, RTPI Chartered Planner
Kerry Dames
Kerry leads the planning strategy at Dames A+P, guiding projects through the planning system from early feasibility to appeal. Her focus is the difficult end of the spectrum: Paragraph 84 countryside homes, National Park applications, and complex, policy-sensitive sites where the right strategy makes the difference between refusal and consent.
An RTPI Chartered Planner, she works across every Local Planning Authority in the South East and South West. She has secured consent on schemes others judged undeliverable, most notably the Water Lily House, won at appeal under Paragraph 84, in an outcome the Inspector described as nationally significant.
Chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
Director, RIBA Chartered Architect
Tom Dames
Tom leads the architectural output at Dames A+P, bringing design clarity, contextual rigour and technical precision to every project. Working closely with Kerry from the outset, he ensures that design ambition and planning strategy move in step from the first sketch through to completion.
Chartered since 2007, Tom began his career in London working on high-end residential projects before spending seventeen years leading his own practice. Over that time he delivered in excess of 750 projects spanning private houses, Part Q barn conversions, listed building and conservation work, small residential developments, and commercial and education facilities.
His work spans new houses, replacement dwellings, extensions and small residential developments across Hampshire and the wider South East, with a particular focus on sites in sensitive and policy-constrained locations, including the South Downs and New Forest National Parks.
Chartered member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
How we work
Three principles behind every project.
Clarity first
We tell you early and plainly what a site can realistically support, before time and money are committed. An honest read at the start is worth more than optimism later.
Integrated thinking
Architecture and planning are decided together, not in sequence. Every design move is tested against policy as it is made, so the scheme that reaches submission is one the authority can support.
Honest advice
We give the advice the project needs, not the advice that is easiest to hear. Fewer delays, clearer decisions, stronger outcomes, that is the standard we hold ourselves to.
"Kerry navigated every challenge with determination and professionalism. Her strategic approach and deep understanding of the planning system gave us complete confidence, and delivered the outcome we were hoping for."
Private Client, 2025
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