Design and build company in London. Designers, a quantity surveyor and builders, under one contract.
Kensington and Chelsea holds some of the country’s most tightly regulated housing stock. Almost everything is listed or in a conservation area. The streets are narrow and the neighbours are close. The borough also has its own policies on digging under a house. That is the context every project here starts from.
In the borough, NU Projects covers architecture, interior design and bespoke joinery. We also cover project management and construction. Here is what each part does.
Architecture
Our architects take a scheme from the first sketch through the planning application. They go on to the technical drawings the site builds from. Doing that in-house means the design is tested for buildability and cost throughout. It is not tested only at tender.
Interior design
The interior work starts from how you use each room. It also considers 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. This matters in a house where nothing is square. Our joinery is made by Cochrane Bespoke, our joinery partner. The drawings, the making and the fitting then sit inside one contract.
Project management
A project manager runs the programme, the procurement and the trades. They also tell you when a decision is due. Most of what keeps a renovation on time is simple. It is decisions made in the right order.
Construction
Our site teams build what was drawn. That runs from extensions and loft conversions through to whole-house renovation. Sometimes the building and the drawing disagree. On a period house they will. The people who drew it resolve the difference.
Renovating a listed or period house
Keeping the character of a heritage building is the hardest brief in the borough. The performance must also be brought up to date. Insulation, glazing and services all have to improve without changing what the street sees.
Basements
The borough has its own basement policy. It limits a basement to one storey. It also limits it to half the garden at most. 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. 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.
This is the work we do. Design and build company in London, or ask for a cost estimate.
Published 12 August 2023. Written by the NU Projects studio, edited since for house style and accuracy.