Kensington and Chelsea holds some of the most tightly regulated housing stock in the country. Almost everything is listed or in a conservation area, the streets are narrow, the neighbours are close, and the borough has its own policies on what can be dug under a house. That is the context every project here starts from.
NU Projects covers architecture, interior design, bespoke joinery, project management and construction in the borough. Here is what each part does.
Architecture
Our architects take a scheme from the first sketch through the planning application to the technical drawings the site builds from. Doing that in-house means the design is tested against buildability and cost as it develops, rather than at tender.
Interior design
The interior work starts from how you use each room and how the daylight moves through the house. Colour, texture and furnishing follow from that, not the other way round.
Bespoke joinery
Staircases, cabinetry and panelling are drawn for the room they go into, which matters in a house where nothing is square. Our joinery is made by Cochrane Bespoke, our joinery partner, so the drawings, the making and the fitting sit inside one contract.
Project management
A project manager runs the programme, the procurement and the trades, and tells you when a decision is due. Most of what keeps a renovation on time is decisions made in the right order.
Construction
Our site teams build what was drawn, from extensions and loft conversions through to whole-house renovation. Where the building and the drawing disagree, and on a period house they will, it is resolved by the people who drew it.
Renovating a listed or period house
Keeping the character of a heritage building while bringing its performance up to date is the hardest brief in the borough. Insulation, glazing and services all have to improve without changing what the street sees.
Basements
The borough has its own basement policy, which limits a basement to one storey and to no more than half the garden. That decides the shape of the scheme before an architect draws anything. See the borough rules in full.
The approvals
Party wall agreements, building control and structural engineering all sit alongside the planning application, and all of them are handled as part of the same contract.
Talk to us
Our studio is on Fulham High Street, a short run from the borough. Tell us about your house, call 020 7731 6841, or price the work with the cost calculator. See completed work in the portfolio.
Published 12 August 2023. Written by the NU Projects studio, edited since for house style and accuracy.