Transition metal centres, clusters and aggregates are common in biological systems and fulfil a variety of functions. Nature has the ability to tailor the properties of such species by controlling the molecular and supramolecular environment of the metal centres through the influence of additional structure-directing chemical species. We have been inspired by this to develop synthetic methods which explore the effects of such templating species on the structure and properties of coordination compound aggregates. We have found that chelating ligands can be used to manipulate the hydrolysis of transition metal ions and direct structure and properties both at the molecular and supramolecular levels. Results for a series of iron(III) compounds formed with ligands based around the iminodiacetate moiety are presented.