NU Projects has worked in design and construction in West London since 2010. This is where the studio came from, what it actually does, and what the single-contract model changes for the person paying for the work.
Where NU came from
Nick Jeffries founded NU Projects in 2010, after several years buying, developing and selling London property. That background is why the company is built the way it is. A developer knows what a drawing costs to build, and knows which decisions are expensive to reverse.
The studio covers architecture, interior design, quantity surveying, mechanical and electrical, construction and aftercare. All of it is in one office in Fulham.
How we work with clients
Every project starts with the brief written down, room by room, before anything is drawn. That is the document the design is tested against, and it is the reason a scheme can be assessed on something other than whether it looks nice.
Our clients come from all over, and the houses are all different. What does not change is that the same people are on the project from the first survey to handover.
Sustainability and functionality
A good interior has to work as well as read well. Insulation, airtightness, glazing performance and responsibly sourced materials are now part of every brief, and on a period building they have to be achieved without changing what the street sees.
That is a design problem before it is a specification, and it is one of the reasons the MEP work sits inside the same contract as the architecture.
What one contract changes
When the people who draw the work also build it, three things change. The price is tested against buildability as the design develops. There is one version of the programme. And when the opening-up finds something nobody drew, there is no argument about whose problem it is.
That is the whole case for design and build. It is not that it is faster. It is that there is one place where the responsibility sits.
Start a project
If you are planning work on a West London house, tell us about it. Read how a project runs in our 12-stage process, see completed work in the portfolio, or price the job with the cost calculator.
Published 4 February 2024. Written by the NU Projects studio, edited since for house style and accuracy.