Profile

Architects of the project, not just the building.

Modular development advisory across London and Seoul

BDV Global Partners is a design-led development and advisory firm specialising in modular construction.

We sit between vision and delivery, directing manufacturers, contractors, and consultants on the client's behalf. Founded by Sangmin Cha, a UK-registered architect (ARB/RIBA) with two decades of practice in London and Seoul, we bring an architect's judgment to the developer's seat: shaping feasibility, structuring projects, and orchestrating delivery across borders.

We are not a contractor or a manufacturer. We are the partner who makes modular work — aligning capital, design, manufacturing, and construction around a single, deliverable vision.

Build. Develop. Value.
The three questions every modular project must answer.

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What we do

Modular Development Consulting
Project & Development Management
Overseas Business Development
Architecture Design
Modular Manufacturing Partnerships
Real Estate Development Advisory

Team

Sangmin Cha
Founder / CEO of BDV Global Partners
2024~

Experience / Track Record

200MW Hyperscale Data Centre, Korea — Modular feasibility & cost validation

Mixed-tenure Housing, Western Australia — Consortium formation & HAFF application

Historic Building Retrofit, London — KOKO Camden, Admiralty Arch

Contacts

Korea: 5, Hangang-daero 43-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
UK: 97 Gardeners Court, London

Awards

RIBA London Award 2025

News

BDV
Global Partners

1

Harrow Art Centre
2020~2023

The Greenhill Building, Harrow Arts Centre
CLT community building · 460 m² · London Borough of Harrow

Attribution — Chris Dyson Architects for Harrow Borough Council. Sangmin Cha acted as project leader through RIBA Stages 3–5 while at the practice.

Challenge — A local authority client needed a flexible teaching and events building on a constrained arts-centre campus, delivered to a public-sector budget.

Approach — Full cross-laminated timber was proposed in place of structural steel. The lightweight, off-site fabricated system removed the need for expensive foundations. Project leadership covered the planning submission, the tender package, and construction administration through to handover.

Outcome — Main build completed in under nine months. The scheme went on to receive a RIBA London Award in 2025, cited for its low-carbon CLT structure and community value.

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Architect: Archer Humphryes Architects
Client: Olly Bengough — KOKO
Structural Engineer: Heyne Tillett Steel
Services Engineer: SVM Consulting Engineers
Contractor: Make One Group
Principal Designer: Bureau Veritas UK
Interior Design (House of KOKO): Pirajean Lees
Interior Design (KOKO Theatre): Redhouse Design

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2

KOKO Camden
2018~2020

KOKO, Camden
Grade II listed music venue · 5,308 m² · £70m construction value · London · 2018–2020

Attribution — Archer Humphryes Architects for KOKO / Olly Bengough. Sangmin Cha contributed during the consent and early construction phase while at the practice; the venue completed in April 2022, after his departure.

Challenge — Three adjoining Grade II listed buildings — a 1900 Sprague theatre, a former piano factory and a public house — had to be woven into a single operating asset without diminishing an independent music venue's commercial life.

Approach — The scheme was structured around programme rather than preservation alone: sixteen distinct revenue-generating spaces were planned across the combined footprint, including a members' club, roof terrace restaurant, recording studio and a 300-capacity venue inserted into the retained Victorian fly tower. Consent was secured through sustained negotiation with English Heritage, the Victorian Society and Camden's conservation department.

Outcome — Consent obtained and construction commenced January 2019. Completed 2022 at £70m; longlisted in Dezeen Awards 2022 (Rebirth) and shortlisted by New London Architecture in the Culture category.

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Authors: Zeus Tutu & Tito Penrose
Edited by: Dusty Acres & Mitch Glitch
92pp, Hardback, 24 × 32 cm
ISBN: 978-82-697000-0-0
Printed by: Cargo® Press Ltd

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Carly’s Cottage, Cornwall
2023

Carly's Cottage, Cornwall
New-build private house · Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty · Restronguet Point, Cornwall · 2021– (ongoing)

Attribution — Gianni Botsford Architects. Sangmin Cha credited as design team member.

Challenge — A new house within a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the Cornish coast, where landscape and ecological impact govern consent and any visible mass is contested.

Approach — The scheme was generated from the sightlines along Restronguet Point and Restronguet Passage rather than from the plot geometry. Served and servant spaces were separated, with angled walls and transparency directing a fluid openness toward the views, so that the house reads as a simple and modest form within an established Cornish garden. Landscape, ecology and landscape-visual assessment consultants were integrated from the outset.

Outcome — Design and Access Statement developed through resubmission; project ongoing.

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Architect: Gianni Botsford Architects
Landscape Architect: Todd Longstaffe-Gowan
Ecologist: Wheal Grey Ecology Ltd
Landscape Visual Assessment: Tirwel Landscape Consultancy

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