Architecture practice records and AI training: a UK guide

Architecture practices hold years of design work: sketches, drawings, models, specifications, planning correspondence, and the coordination that turns a design into a building. AI developers building tools for design and construction want records like these, because they show how a design develops from brief to completion.

This guide covers practices registered under SIC codes 71111 (architectural activities) and 71112 (urban planning and landscape architecture) (Companies House). For the basics, start with our UK guide to selling company data to AI developers.

What architecture practices hold

The RIBA Plan of Work divides a project into "eight stages", with the "stage outcomes, core tasks and information exchanges required at each stage" (RIBA). A practice holds records from every stage:

• Design files. Sketches, CAD drawings, BIM models, renders and design reviews. In the NBS Digital Construction Report 2025, 74% of architecture professionals said they use BIM, and 49% use AI at work (RIBA Journal).
• Project records. Briefs, specifications, schedules, meeting minutes, change records and stage reports.
• Statutory records. Planning and building control correspondence. Under the CDM Regulations 2015, the principal designer "must prepare a health and safety file" and pass it to the client at the end of the project (CDM 2015, reg 12). For higher-risk buildings in England, the golden thread guidance says the principal designer must "capture and keep all of the design information up to date". The client's application for building control approval includes "drawings and plans" and a "change control plan and log" (GOV.UK).
• Business records. Fee proposals, bids, timesheets, accounts and HR files.

Who owns the designs

Copyright law treats plans and buildings as artistic works. Section 4 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 covers "any painting, drawing, diagram, map, chart or plan" and "a work of architecture being a building or a model for a building" (CDPA 1988, s4).

• Your staff's work. The practice owns the copyright in work its employees produce in the course of their employment, unless an agreement says otherwise (CDPA 1988, s11(2)).
• Freelancers' work. A freelancer usually keeps the copyright unless they assign it in writing (IPO, CDPA 1988, s90(3)).
• Other consultants' work. Your project files also hold drawings by structural engineers, services engineers and other consultants. Those belong to them, not to you.
• The client's rights. "Typically, the architect retains copyright and grants a licence to the client to use the design." Assignment to the client is possible, "but this is rare". Under the RIBA standard contract, "the architect can withdraw or suspend the copyright licence if any fees are outstanding" (RIBA Journal). RIBA lists the conditions on the client's licence among the key clauses of its 2020 contracts (RIBA).

So most practices own the copyright in their own drawings. That makes architecture records easier to license than many other kinds. But ownership is the first test, not the only one.

What must stay out

• Clients' personal data. On a house or an extension, the drawings show a named person's home. Linked to a name or an address, plans and photographs can be personal data. So are client correspondence and neighbours' comments.
• Confidential information. The Architects Code requires architects to "Protect the confidentiality and security of information for which they are responsible" (standard 4.6) (ARB). Check each appointment and NDA before you include a project.
• Secure buildings. Plans of prisons, defence sites, data centres and other secure buildings usually carry security conditions. Leave them out unless the client agrees in writing.
• Other people's material. Consultants' drawings, manufacturers' details and paid-for standards.

For how personal data is removed, see our UK guide and the glossary entry on anonymisation.

What buyers want

• Handshake AI names AutoCAD and Figma among the tools it takes records from (Handshake AI).
• Labelbox Prism names CAD among the systems it turns into training environments (Prism).
• General Data Co lists "Technical drawings" and "CAD models" among the data it looks for (General Data Co).
• Petrarch, a Y Combinator company that sources internal company data for frontier labs, says it has already transacted "construction plans, autonomous driving recordings, and codebases" (Y Combinator).

The most valuable records connect the steps of a project: the brief, the options considered, the design reviews, the planning comments and the changes that followed. A project history that shows why each decision was made is worth more than drawings alone.

Size matters to some buyers. In RIBA's Business Benchmarking 2025, 78% of RIBA chartered practices had 1 to 9 staff, 18% had 10 to 49 and 4% had 50 or more. Those with 50 or more staff employed 44% of staff and earned 61% of revenue (RIBA Journal). Several buyers publish minimums of 20 or 30 staff, while others, such as SuperAnnotate, say they take companies of any size. Our buyer finder shows which buyers' published criteria fit your practice.

If the practice is closing or insolvent

Architecture is part of professional, scientific and technical activities, which had 1,913 company insolvencies in England and Wales in the 12 months to August 2026 (Insolvency Service). No figure is published for architecture alone.

A practice's copyright is company property, like its other assets. A liquidator can sell it. If a company is struck off while it still owns property, that property passes to the Crown as bona vacantia. A practice that closes without a plan can lose the value of years of design work. Our guides to company records in insolvency and closing a company explain the options.

Before you talk to buyers

1. Map your files. CAD and BIM, document management, email and project folders, with the years each one covers.
2. Check your appointments. Note any that assign copyright to the client, and any with confidentiality terms.
3. Separate other consultants' drawings. Keep only your practice's own work.
4. Flag sensitive projects. Private houses, secure buildings and projects under NDA.
5. Check freelance work. Find the signed assignments, or leave that work out.
6. Keep your own full copy. A buyer should get a copy, never your only record.

Tydex values a practice's records from basic facts, finds buyers whose criteria fit, and brings you written offers. Get a free valuation.