Architects West London
Architects West London
Architects West London
About us
With an extensive portfolio of residential projects throughout West London over more than a decade, we see this part of London as our backyard. Our clients have made us the West London architects of choice, empowering us to change West London’s architectural landscape house by house.
Whether you’re looking to call West London home or just experience some of the city’s most vibrant and fashionable neighbourhoods, our guide will point you in the right direction. With exclusive streets, shopping districts and upscale dining experiences – Kensington & Chelsea, Notting Hill and Hammersmith offer a tantalising glimpse into luxury living at its best.
We established Scenario in 2007 with a vision to develop a uniquely collaborative architecture. We take a considered approach to our clients’ desires, placing their aspirations for a new, architect-designed home in full focus. The clients’ needs are the main drivers of our design process.
A beautiful, highly functional home is the product of a deep understanding and precise analysis of each homeowner’s unique lifestyle – and that shows in our work. Scenario’s tailor-made homes tell the story of our clients – not ourselves.
Projects
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Architects West London
Architects West London
Architects West London
Architects West London
Your West London project
If you’re considering a residential architectural project in West London, we’re here to help, whether it’s a renovation, extension or new-build.
We’ve created a brief illustrated overview to help you understand each stage of the process, whether you’re planning a home extension, renovation or new-build in West London.
Most architecture projects in London require planning permission from the local council. With our successful record securing planning permission on behalf of our clients, we can claim home advantage across West London.
To help you understand what it takes to obtain planning permission in London, we’ve created this helpful guide. Download it below.
Tip
Discover if your architect has had success steering planning applications through your local council. Visit the “planning applications” page of your council’s website and enter the architect’s name in the search criteria.
Architects West London
Architects West London
Scenario is an established architecture practice focusing on contemporary residential design. We take on projects of every scale and scope, from home refurbishment, renovation and expansions to new-builds.
Working with Scenario Architecture
Scenario Architecture is a boutique architecture studio focused on high-end residential projects across London. We tackle domestic projects of every scale and complexity, from refurbishments to full renovations and new-builds, through our bespoke architecture service.
Our friendly, experienced, highly skilled team can take you step-by-step through the challenge of designing your space. We’ll collaborate closely with you from the initial design and planning through tender and construction to the successful completion of your project. On time and on budget.
Scenario Architecture is a RIBA Chartered Practice. We comply with the criteria of the Royal Institute of Chartered Architects, covering insurance, health and safety and quality-management systems.
Early adopters of the latest technology, we use innovative 3D design and visualisation tools as a standard for all projects. Our experience shows that real-time visualisations and virtual reality are extremely efficient tools for choosing finishes, fixtures and fittings, and simulating natural light.
We also use 3D building information modelling (BIM) technology to produce reliable construction information, so all our project data comes from accurate 3D models. Using this cutting-edge technology collaboratively with consultants and contractors is proven to save our clients time and money. This Chartered Institute of Building case study featuring a Scenario project demonstrates the great benefits of this advanced technology for domestic architecture.
Architects West London
In our client's words
Architects West London
Great ideas and vision to help with our substantial improvement of a Victorian terrace. In our experience Scenario's method prioritises the final result. That may mean more professional fees or higher quotes from contractors, as they understand the exact requirements.
Architects West London
Great, professional service. Good drawings and models and ultimately passed planning at the first attempt with Hackney Council. Would certainly recommend!
Architects West London
Scenario Architecture have created an outstanding design and space that was beyond my expectations. The design was through their unique process of understanding the client’s daily scenarios and collaborating with the client to come up with a unique design. The design process is one of the most memorable parts of the process and they also stretched my existing ideas to help create this unique space. A stress free journey throughout the whole process which Scenario were indispensable by giving advice on many difficult design and build decisions.
Architects West London
We wanted to renovate our house in a conservation area in central London. Given this involved a complete demolition and new build with an extra floor on top, getting planning approval was always going to be tricky. Scenario did an amazing job on the new house 'envelope' and throughout the planning phase. We couldn't have wished for better from them and having succeeded in gaining planning approval owe them a very big 'thank you'.
Architects West London
Scenario were great at thinking imaginatively and coming up with a design for a ground floor extension that was more ambitous than other architects we spoke to. They also helped us find a contractor who was able to complete the project working within timescale and our tight budget. I would recommend for mid to large sized projects with sufficient budget to allow for full utilisation of their creativity.
Further Reading
The neighbourhoods beyond London’s West End began developing in earnest after the Georgians. We can see grand swaths of Regency homes in the West London districts of Knightsbridge, Kensington and Notting Hill, usually facing landscaped parks surrounded by wrought-iron fencing. You can recognise them by their classical proportions, white-stucco façades, Doric and Ionic pillars, angular fanlights and simple monochrome tilework – often on sweeping streets following gentle curves.
Making up of the most exclusive neighbourhoods in London, these Regency homes are also governed by strict conservation regulations that restrict owners from altering their defining features. The desirability of these homes make them some of the most expensive on the market around London.
Yet homeowners in West London are also trailblazers, establishing a standard of renovation, restoration and home-extension that has become the norm across West London. If you buy a home in West London, you will have many options available to you in terms of opening up your interior and designing a more efficient home. Many families are choosing to dig down rather than up, designing vast basement living spaces and utility areas. These basement extensions have proved controversial, disrupting the neighbourhood calm – although they also do the least to mar the original integrity of the architecture. Others choose to build light-filled double-height extensions in the rear, expanding kitchens and family rooms that tended to be smaller, historically.
Moving westward, the architecture segues from Regency to Victorian – a style of taller, thinner, more ornamental houses compartmentalised into smaller rooms. Houses from this period represent a democratisation of London living. They were built for the growing middle class, as well as the working classes and spanned an era of immense growth for London. Heading into the 20th century, West London architecture became squatter, roomier and more practical, eliminating steep stairwells and staff quarters.
Both Victorian and Edwardian homes have always made great use of colour and light, and owners may be inspired to highlight those features. Others use architects to complement the original features with wide banks of glazing and austere woodwork. Those homes further outside central London had deeper gardens. Opportunities to expand outward or design outbuildings for the end of the garden are greater for these properties.
West London architects and those, like Scenario, experienced working within a historical context will best help you conceive of improvements for your home that fit within the local allowances and provide you with a comfortable, efficient, beautiful living space.
Advice
View AllFrequently Asked Questions
- As a dynamic practice operating in London’s premium residential market, managing projects remotely and conducting virtual meetings was a very familiar territory for us, long before the pandemic began and ‘working remotely’ became the norm.
- Our clients have very busy lifestyles and may move between several different locations, both within the UK and beyond, during the lifecycle of a typical project.
- To accommodate such client needs and enable us to run their projects smoothly we had all the technology and know-how associated with remote working in place for several years.
- Read our full (Virtual) Process
- Scenario based design – We start each and every project with a meticulous analysis of our client’s vision, requirements and aspirations. We do this by asking our clients to imagine their everyday scenarios living in the completed house and describe their desired interaction with it.
- Uniquely interactive - Our client’s deep involvement in the process does not stop with completion of the brief. Our design meetings are highly interactive, informal and fun.
- Designed to reflect you – Based purely on your lifestyle, aspirations and requirements and free from externally imposed concepts, metaphors and pre-conceptions, a completely fresh and unique design will gradually emerge and it will tell your story not ours.
- Collaborative – We start the conversation with planners early and advise most of our clients to seek pre-planning advice prior to submission of a full planning application. Our experience shows that when properly consulted and liaised with, most planning case officers will be receptive to conduct a professional dialogue, increasing chances of successes.
- Strategic – We tailor a custom planning strategy for each project based on its circumstances such as planning history, local context and specific challenging elements. We sometimes split applications or introduce minor tweaks to the scheme during the consideration period in conversation with the officers to prevent one contentious element from jeopardising approval of the main scheme.
- Professional – Our experience shows that the quality and clarity of the submission in terms of background research, planning history of the property and context, precedent and of course the arguments presented to support the case has a tremendous effect on success rate.
- The decision period clock only starts ticking once the application is validated by the Council, This requires then to check that the forms are completed correctly and that the submission contains all the necessary drawings, statements and reports.
- Although required by law to provide a decision within the statutory eight weeks period, it is not uncommon for councils to miss the deadline of the consideration period, normally only by a few days, sometimes longer.
- In some cases the council may ask us as your agent for an extension of time, this may be requested due to internal reasons or as an acceptable result of a professional discussion that we are conducting with them about certain aspects of the application that they are not sure about.
- Our experience shows that planning officers respond better to projects when they feel consulted and collaborated with. We find that when we truly listen to their often helpful and valid feedback and treat them as consultants for the projects and not representative of an evil enforcing authority, they tend to collaborate well with us and demonstrate increased flexibility.
- Although the council in theory have eight weeks to consider your application, in practice they are constantly overloaded. They will only look at your application in the last few days of the consideration period. If this is the first time that they come across a scheme that they were never consulted about, our chance to secure permission for you in a single attempt is significantly compromised.
- The standard practice is for the council to consider the full planning application as submitted and then issue a yes or no decision. Case officers are not required or even encouraged to enter a discussion with us or accept resubmission of minor changes to the proposed scheme during the consideration period.