Quad's heritage goes back to early 1987 when Nuggy Lianos formed the architectural practice Quad Architects. Nik Davies and Martin Cummins joined in 1988 and the partnership began to undertake their own developments jointly funded with Kevin Thomas, who also became Director in each of Quad's development vehicles.
Quad firmly believes that architects should be at the heart of all aspects of the development process. By acquiring an understanding of the commercial aspects of building projects, including appropriate legal frameworks, investor relations, institutional funding and sales and marketing, Quad has assumed a positon of relative autonomy in how it realises its developments. Quad also frequently manages the construction of its projects and is able to use its pivotal position in the whole process to improve the quality of the buildings it designs and constructs.