Each month, PTE's Knowledge Hub team will explore the complexities and technical challenges British project architects face every day.

This month, Working Detail turns to one of the practice’s greatest resources: the international experience embedded across our team. We invited colleagues to share examples of technical, regulatory or construction best practice from their home countries or from places they’ve previously worked. The responses offer a reminder that good practice often begins as a cultural habit, a climatic response, or the legacy of a historic event - long before it becomes regulation.

Marion begins with a centuries-old rule of thumb from the Outer Hebrides, a landscape shaped by relentless south-westerlies and where the siting of a home was not an aesthetic choice but a matter of survival, honed over generations. ‘An iar's an ear, an dachaigh as' fhéarr - cùl ri gaoith,'s aghaidh ri gréin,’ she told us, in her best Gaelic. In English, that’s: ‘East to west, the house that’s best - back to the wind and face to the sun.’

As the UK tightens Part O and expands environmental assessments - from wind to daylight - the age-old Scottish approach reads like an unbroken line to contemporary design thinking. Before modelling software and compliance matrices, there was simply observation, experience, and an instinctive understanding of place. The lesson: orientation is your starting point.

Viviana reflects on the difficulty of finding transferable ‘best practice’ within Italy’s famously bureaucratic regulatory environment but finds something more valuable in the country’s traditional building logic.

In a warm climate, environmental control is embedded in everyday architecture. Shutters, screens, and layered façade systems are not innovations; they are baseline elements that have existed for centuries. Window proportions evolved to balance daylight and heat gain long before daylight factors or overheating guidance. Perforated clay blocks, which are lightweight, breathable, and thermally efficient, remain a common masonry material.

As UK climate data shifts and overheating becomes a mainstream concern, many of the techniques now entering British conversation echo long-standing Mediterranean practice. It is a reminder that adaptation need not always be invention.

Joanna highlights Portugal’s deeply embedded seismic culture, forged by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake - one of the most devastating in European history. That event not only reshaped the city but laid the foundations for centuries of seismic research and, eventually, Eurocode 8.

What stands out is not simply the robustness of Portuguese codes, but the public awareness surrounding them. Preparedness campaigns, tsunami-readiness certification, and regular education reinforce the idea that regulation only works when society understands why it exists. For the UK, where seismic risk is low but other risks (overheating, flooding, fire spread) are rising, the Portuguese example offers a model for pairing technical standards with cultural literacy.

William points to NZS 3604, New Zealand’s prescriptive timber-framing standard. Designed for local wind, seismic, and climatic loads, it provides a clear ‘cookbook’ for domestic timber construction, allowing most houses to be built without bespoke engineering.

This creates consistency, speeds up approvals, reduces cost, and strengthens industry competence. As timber takes on a larger role in decarbonisation a UK equivalent could offer clarity in a sector currently served by dispersed guidance.

Finally, Tim introduces Sweden’s ROT (Reparation, Ombyggnad, Tillbyggnad) deduction: a tax incentive offering homeowners 50% off labour for repairs, renovations, and extensions. The policy keeps housing stock in good condition, professionalises small-scale construction work, and reduces undeclared labour. A similar UK scheme could stimulate home upgrades, support trades, and accelerate energy retrofits - particularly if framed around net-zero outcomes.

Across climates, histories and regulatory cultures, one theme recurs: when good practice is embedded in daily life, whether through tradition, clarity or incentive, it becomes more effective. The UK has much to learn from that ethos.