Design and build company in London. Designers, a quantity surveyor and builders, under one contract.
Design and build combines the design and the construction under one contract. A homeowner may want clarity, control and a single point of accountability. For them, that structure does five specific things. Here they are. Here is also how NU Projects came to be organised around them.
Fewer waiting periods
A traditional route separates design and construction. The project stops while one hands over to the other. Design and build lets them overlap. This removes the dead time between a design decision and the pricing of it.
It is not automatically faster on site. What it removes is the rework. That happens when a consultant draws something the contractor then has to re-draw.
Clearer budget control
Design and construction may be held separately. Then a change during construction becomes an argument about whose change it was. One responsibility removes that argument.
Cost information is developed alongside the design. A scheme that cannot be built for the budget is identified in week three. It is not found in month six. Our own construction rates are published in the NU Build Cost Calculator.
Simpler communication
Coordinating several contractors and designers is a job in itself. It usually falls to the client. With one team it does not. There is one contact who coordinates the whole thing. There is one version of the programme.
Better quality, because it is buildable
The designers and the builders are in the same room. So the design is tested as it develops. It is tested against how it will actually be constructed. That is what stops a detail being redrawn on site. Otherwise somebody is guessing at the intent.
Less risk for the client
Delays, cost overruns and disputes are the three risks on any project. All three get worse when responsibility is split. Putting it with one organisation makes the planning better. The consequences land in the same place as the decision.
How NU came to work this way
Nick Jeffries founded NU Projects in 2010. Before that he spent several years buying, developing and selling property in London. That background is the reason the company is built the way it is. A developer knows what a drawing costs to build. A developer also knows which decisions are expensive to reverse.
The studio grew from there into architects, interior designers and a quantity surveyor. It also grew into an MEP director, project managers and site teams. All are in one office in Fulham.
What we offer today
- Concept design and feasibility studies
- Architectural and technical drawings
- Planning and building control
- Cost planning and quantity surveying
- Mechanical and electrical design and installation
- Construction management and delivery
- Bespoke joinery and interior fit-out
- Handover, commissioning and aftercare
Final thoughts
Design and build gives you fewer waiting periods and clearer budgets. It also gives simpler communication, better buildability and less risk. Whether it is right for your project depends on your brief. Where it is not, we will say so. The trade-off against an architect-led route is covered in architect or design and build.
Tell us about your project, or read the sequence in our 12-stage process.
This is the work we do. Design and build company in London, or ask for a cost estimate.
Published 8 December 2025. Written by the NU Projects studio, edited since for house style and accuracy.