About us
As London expands outward and its centre of gravity shifts eastward, it’s only natural that people looking to put their personal stamp on a home search beyond the city confines. Essex has become wildly popular – for families as well as young professionals. Connected to central London by a trusty motorway network and a thick web of public transit, Essex makes the commute extremely doable. And it doesn’t disappoint in terms of natural beauty. In Essex, you can have the best of both worlds: a cosmopolitan urban lifestyle and access to unspoilt outdoors.
Looking toward Essex give you access to all manner of property, from historic townhomes to suburban revival architecture to country estates. If you plan on renovating, expanding or building anew, however, you’ll need the wisdom of a local architect to help you navigate the local building regulations, wherever you land.
For a pool of architects, Essex based, search the database of your local council’s “planning and building controls” microsite; visit the RIBA website for a list of its member-architects; or contact Scenario. We’ve collaborated successfully with councils throughout London and Essex on period and modern homes. Our experience, along with our reputation converting historic homes with a compassionate eye, has made our boutique architectural design practice one of the most sought-after in the UK.
Since launching Scenario in 2007, we’ve established a unique, collaborative style that fuses architectural heritage with modern silhouettes. That fine balance generates striking contrasts, and homes that are easy and enjoyable to live in. Our clients lead the design process, collaborating from drawing table to completion on personalised elements that enhance their way of life.
Our work speaks volumes. We were shortlisted for a RIBA London Award in 2018 for our residential project Scenario House, a showcase of our commitment to period properties with modern details. Elements of this project can be adapted to any homeowner, in any period or contemporary home in the UK.
Projects
Full renovation of a family home, exploring the connection between living spaces
The Scenario House, Stoke Newington during NLA Open house event
Starting your Essex project
Essex Architects Your Essex project
Most building projects in Essex require approval from the local authority. Essex architects can help you through the process, collaborating with council officials to see through your application. Scenario Architects has successfully steered clients through the permissions stage.
We’ve drawn up an illustrated synopsis to help guide you through the planning process for an Essex-based renovation, restoration, addition or new-build.
Focal Shift fire place, first project as local architects in Hackney E9
The Scenario House, Stoke Newington during NLA Open house event
2017
Your Essex project
Undertaking a renovation, restoration, addition or new build in Essex? The architects at Scenario can help you understand the process. But first, take a look at this illustrated synopsis.
For most building work in Essex, you’ll need approval from your local council’s building department. Architects, Essex-based, can help you through the process, collaborating with officials to see your application through. We at Scenario have successfully secured planning permission for all our clients, so we can help, too.
If you are thinking about starting an architectural project in Essex, be it a renovation, or an extension to an existing property or even a new build house we are here to help.
We created a brief and illustrated overview of the process to help you understand what to expect through the various stages of a residential, extension, renovation or new build project in Essex.
Most projects need planning permission from your local council.
TIP: To find out the actual track record which any architects you may be considering has with your local council, go to the planning application search page on your local council’s website and use the search by agent option.
Tip
Working with Scenario Architecture on your Essex project
Essex Architects Your Essex project
Our boutique studio specialises in residential architecture, offering bespoke services for home additions, renovations and new-builds. Based in Wandsworth, we practice across London and beyond.
A RIBA Chartered Practice, Scenario complies with the UK’s strict health and safety criteria. We collaborate closely with our clients throughout every stage of the process, from the design phase, through planning and construction. We aim to deliver every project on time and on budget.
Our skilled team works with the latest 3D design technology: real-time digital visualisations and virtual reality. We feel they are the most effective and efficient tools for seeing through our work, choosing fittings and simulating natural light.
This Chartered Institute of Building case study features a recent Scenario project, demonstrating the benefits of advanced technologies in designing for the domestic sphere.
Working with Scenario Architecture on your Essex project
Established in 2007, Scenario Architecture is a boutique architecture studio focused on the high-end residential sector, working extensively throughout and around London. We specialise in every scale and type of domestic project, from interior alterations, through full renovations and refurbishments to new build homes. We offer a full bespoke architecture service tailored to fit your requirements and aspirations.
Our friendly and highly skilled team has the knowledge, experience and expertise necessary to take you step-by-step through the challenging and exciting journey of creating your new home. We will work together with you in close collaboration from initial design, through detail design and planning all the way to tender, construction and successful completion of your project on time and within budget.
Scenario Architecture is an RIBA Chartered Practice, which essentially means that we are compliant with the RIBA (Royal Institute of Chartered Architects) strict criteria, covering insurance, health and safety and quality management systems.
As early adopters of latest technology, we use as a standard for all projects a verity of innovative 3D design and visualisation tools to create and communicate design with our clients. Our experience shows that Real-Time visualisations and Virtual Reality tours are extremely powerful tools to streamline the process of choosing material finishes fixtures and fittings as well as simulating realistic natural light conditions.
When we produce accurate and reliable construction information we use the latest 3D BIM technology, (BIM stands for Building Information Modelling) which means that all project information is derived from a single accurate and coordinated 3D model. Using this cutting-edge technology collaboratively with other consultants as well as contractors has proven to save time and cost for our clients.
A case study featuring one of our projects was published by the Chartered Institute of Building, demonstrating the great benefits of this advanced technology specifically with domestic projects.
Scenario Architecture in London deliver design and architectural expertise for residential projects. We were established in 2007 by Ran Ankory and Maya Carni who both trained with the AA School of Architecture. Scenario have grown to an award-winning team of nine. We have been featured in Dezeen and Elle Decoration UK.
Our highly experienced team of architects Stoke Newington work with clients using innovative 3D and Virtual Reality technology that simulates your new home before the first brick is even laid. This simulation technique allows you to see beautiful scenarios, designed to fit your life. An organic process, it often influences the choice of materials and design methods.
If you are looking for a top architects Essex, we can help with your project. We are a RIBA Chartered Practice and we operate across the following areas and postal districts: Camden, Dalston, Hackney, Hampstead, Highgate, Haringey, Islington, East London, Knightsbridge, Kensington and Chelsea, Mayfair, Notting Hill, North London, West London, West Hampstead, Shoreditch, Southwark, Stoke Newington, N1, N6, NW3, N16 and E5.
Full-width extension opens to the beautiful garden of this Victorian property
Complete renovation and extension of a family home
A glazed roof draws daylight deep into the plan
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.
Victorian renovations are more compassionate today than they’ve ever been, with homeowners striving to preserve architectural elements like decorative cornicing, ceiling roses, skirting boards and dada rails. Sash windows are being replaced by specially made wood reproductions and wood-burning fireplaces recouped after being sealed off for decades. Paint companies like Farrow & Ball have built multinationals out of replicating the de rigueur colours of Victorian times. And new tile ceramicists are bringing back traditional motifs with contemporary silhouettes, for front gardens and foyers. Hardwood floors have made a comeback, with timber salvage and reproduction going strong.
Most renovations focus on transforming the core of the home, and revolutionise the kitchen and bathrooms in the process. To recoup the extra floor area today’s families have become accustomed to, Essex architects are extending into voids in the lofts and side returns common in Victorians. Small period kitchens can open up into the side return without eradicating period features; in the recovered space, a corner can be reserved for a powder room or utility room. Ditto the loft: pushing up the ceiling and pushing out dormer windows can make new space available for an en suite bathroom.
With extending out into dead space comes the welcoming in of natural light. Upward-facing Velux windows become possible once the upper floor is properly extended and the main floor pushed out beyond the confines of the original footprint. If a second-storey extension is permitted in your plans, an internal void can bring natural light from the top floor downwards, and vice versa.
Essex Architects In our clients words
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'. 
Scenario designed a kitchen extension for us, and we are delighted with the results. The process was well organised, planned and delivered, and the whole team were a pleasure to work with. I would highly recommend them for their design, planning and project management skills. 
Worked with these guys on the internal development of our office. From start to finish they were great. They got what we wanted first time and really made working with them very easy. Their aftercare has been great too helping us deal with something that they were not involved with in the first place. Will highly recommend them to anyone. See all Google reviews
Working with Scenario Architecture
Scenario specialises in residential architectural design in all varieties and scales. Our London-based boutique studio offers bespoke services for refurbishments, home additions, renovations and new-builds.
We pride ourselves on being a RIBA Chartered Practice, which means we comply with the UK’s strict health and safety criteria for architecture. Though we are based in London, we practice across Southeast England and beyond, so visit our online portfolio if you’re seeking an architect, Essex-based. Our skilled architects collaborate closely with our clients on every stage of the process, from sketches through detailed designs, planning and construction. We deliver on time and on budget. We work with the latest 3D design technology on all projects. We believe real-time digital visualisations and virtual reality are the most effective and efficient tools for seeing through our work, choosing fittings and simulating natural light.
Read this Chartered Institute of Building case study to find details of a recent Scenario project. It demonstrates the benefits of advanced technologies for our domestic work.
In our client's words
Dalston is less a defined London territory than it is a neighbourhood of like-minded people. Roughly defined in the west by the A10, the city’s oldest Roman-dug road, it floats between Clapton, Hoxton and Islington. But more than its geographical location, it expresses itself with its liberal, tolerant, international attitude.
The working-class population that first settled here in the 19th-century, rippling out from the Regents Canal, converted farmland into industrial sites and small Victorian cottages. They were joined by immigrants from multiple countries and religions, together building up a modest community outside the confines of the City of London. After a postwar slump, the neighbourhood came alive toward the end of the last century. Artists began settling here, spilling out from Hoxton and Shoreditch, seeking inexpensive post-industrial workspace, artistic freedom and places to exhibit their art. As per the rules of gentrification, young professionals and families followed. They’ve transformed the old warehouses, factories and stables into appealing and spacious homes. And in the brownfields between them, architects have designed experimental contemporary homes, creating housing where none existed while pushing the boundaries of their craft.
Live-work spaces, purpose-built apartment blocks and modern terrace housing have sprung up among the historic brick and contemporary timber constructions, giving the neighbourhood a dynamic and unpredictable character. People of all cultures and brackets live side-by-side, and businesses are popping up to serve them. They combine to make Dalston an area of great potential, for people who seek a multicultural atmosphere and an unconventional lifestyle.
If you’re a fan of heritage housing, look to the streets radiating east off Stoke Newington High Street and Kingsland Road. Streets like Forest Road and Richmond Road, leading to Gayhurst Community School and London Fields, are chock-a-block with tall, broad Victorian family homes and repurposed factories. With the old brick and ironwork maintained, new residents are slowly fixing them up and maximising their potential. Further north, Shacklewell Lane, Sandringham Road and St Marks Rise are attracting new buyers to the grand tree-lined streets. Homes here rise to four storeys, many of them in need of an upgrade. Buyers seeking a fixer-upper, or a tired family home on which to put a personal stamp, would have lots of opportunity here. At the heart of this enclave sits St Marks Dalston, one of the largest neighbourhood churches in the country – larger in area than Southwark Cathedral. Its Gothic rose window and French-inflected tower, built a century ago, dominate the road.
Loft extensions are more of a rule than an exception in Dalston, as are side-return kitchen extensions. Local architects like Scenario are well versed in the expansion and renovation process here, and manoeuvre their designs successfully through the planning and heritage departments. The results are often stripped-back, light-filled versions of the original Victorian architecture, offering vast entertaining spaces and private nooks for growing families.
Further Reading
Where does London end and Essex begin? It’s hard to say. Over the years the borders between the city and counties to the north and east have shifted as neighbourhoods sought to be independent from or part of the capital. Suffice it to say: if you can take the Tube there, you’re not in Essex.
What is Essex transcends its reputation as a cluster of bourgeois commuter towns. Take Saffron Walden in the north, as pretty as it sounds amid golden fields, half-timbered houses and a twice-weekly produce market. It connects to Stansted and the City and yet enjoys its own bubble of local theatre, design shops and proper gastro-pub fare. At the opposite end of Essex is Burnham, all frilly Victorian and leaded glass on a landscape of emerald lowlands. Two minutes outside town you can take your pick of deserted beaches with resident seals and skip stones in the breeze. From your converted farmhouse in Waltham Abbey, you can sail down the Lea River to your desk in London. Or you can hole up in Frinton, nab yourself a sherbet-coloured beach hut and get into golf.
Nobody much talks about the history in Essex, the fact that Colchester was the first Roman town (and thus the first target of the murderous Queen Boudicca). Or that Chipping Ongar still has an original Saxon wood church – and the feeling of a Medieval village less than an hour from London. The area is often overshadowed by Suffolk to the north and Kent below. But, of course, Essex was one of the first proper counties in the UK. It was the first route into the country for legions of explorers, invaders and immigrants. And still it boasts quite a bit of natural beauty. For homes with period features and large gardens that still allow some alterations and expansions under the local codes, go to the outer borders of the county: villages like Dedham on the River Stour, with its Gothic parish church, or the seaside resort Walton-on-the-Naze, with its wind-swept maritime feel and waterfront that falls far short of kitsch. Or explore the tidy hedgerows of the little bedroom communities around Epping Green, from where you can commute into London through forests and marshlands.
Stick to the main centres of Chelmsford and Cheltenham for the amenities of a big city in a small-town environment. Wherever you do go, you’ll be able to find an architect with the talent and compassion to transform your house into a home with a sense of personality and place.
