About us
Bordered by Banbury and Reading, Burford and the Chilterns, Oxfordshire is one of the most appealing and aspirational counties in England. At its centre, it boasts the storied university with its bustling city of 150,000, home to cultural and architectural treasures. Oxford’s magical beauty rivals the pastoral outskirts, incorporating two major areas of natural beauty and a slew of charming market towns.
With the city growing and the countryside increasingly popular, real estate in Oxfordshire is highly coveted. But what exists is often charming and well sited, close to green pastures, stylish taverns and ancient fabric.
To renovate or expand a home in Oxfordshire, you will need to win permission from the local council. Seek the help of architects, Oxfordshire-based, to explore local regulations and design a respectful design solution sympathetic to the local vernacular.
Since founding Scenario Architecture in 2007, we have built a reputation for transforming English homes that respect their environment and historical foundation – thanks in no small part to our successful relationships in planning departments across the country. Our experience and talent for heritage conversions have helped make Scenario one of the region’s most coveted architecture practices.
At Scenario we’ve developed a unique architectural style that marries heritage details and modern silhouettes. Our clients guide our process every step of the way on personalised elements that enhance their way of life. Our collaborations generate user-friendly spaces with striking contrasts – homes that are easy and enjoyable to live in.
Our flagship project Scenario House showcases our commitment to period properties with modern details – elements that can be adapted to any homeowner and any property, historic or contemporary. In 2018 it was shortlisted for a prestigious RIBA London Award.
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 Oxfordshire project
Oxfordshire Architects Your Oxfordshire project
Most building projects in Oxfordshire require approval from the local authority. Oxfordshire 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 Oxfordshire-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 Oxfordshire project
If you are undertaking a renovation, restoration, addition or new-build project in Oxfordshire, take a look at this illustrated synopsis we’ve drawn up to help you understand the process.
Most architectural projects in Oxfordshire require approval from the local council. Architects, Oxfordshire-based, can help you through the process, collaborating with officials to see your application through. Scenario is well versed at successfully steering clients through the planning permissions process.
If you are thinking about starting an architectural project in Oxfordshire, 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 Oxfordshire.
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 Oxfordshire project
Oxfordshire Architects Your Oxfordshire 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 Oxfordshire 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 Oxfordshire, 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.
Start your Oxfordshire project
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, Oxfordshire 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.
Oxfordshire 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 Architecture specialises in residential projects of all varieties and scales. Our boutique studio offers bespoke services for home additions, renovations and new-builds. Based in London, we practice across England, so visit our online portfolio if you’re seeking an architect, Oxfordshire-based.
We’re a RIBA Chartered Practice, complying with strict health and safety criteria. Our skilled staff collaborate closely with our clients throughout every stage of the process, from the design phase, through planning and construction. We deliver on time and on budget. We work with the latest 3D design technology. 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
To people outside the UK as in, Oxfordshire represents a special, romantic version of England: stately homes, honey-coloured thatched-roof cottages, rolling green landscapes and Gothic churches. In many corners of the county, stringent building regulations and passion for the inherited environment has allowed the area to maintain its natural beauty. From the bucolic magnificence of the Cotswolds to the golden pillared monuments of Oxford, the area has a storybook quality. Modernity has crept into the Tudor shopfronts, the Asian restaurants, the swish country pubs, yet in many corners of the county, with views across stern steeples and clay-tile roofs, it’s like the past five centuries have never happened.
Retreating to Oxfordshire with means to buy a home is something of a dream. Save up and buy a plot near Christmas Common, or on the river at Henley, or a smart little terraced house in Faringdon. Prices are increasingly tough to swing, yet there still remain affordable pockets in the villages surrounding Blenheim Palace and the old farming communities toward Cheltenham. Oxford has always had a lively community whether or not you play a part in the illustrious university. Some 150,000 year-long residents bounce between the urban downtown and the museums and music halls of the university grounds. Residential neighbourhoods take on all architectural styles and characters, from Georgian and Victorian to mid-century modern. There are opportunities aplenty to expand, renovate and rebuild to improve function, access and quality of life. Altering a heritage property in Oxfordshire is not unprecedented. There is a history of local conversions and expansions of listed properties falling under conservation laws. Lofts, basements, side returns and garden rooms are popular plans of action. Some families have had the occasion to build anew, adding swimming pools and so-called great rooms. Further out into the countryside, old barns and farmhouses are being transformed into family homes, using traditional oak frames to support wide banks of glass.
Ask your architects about their knowhow navigating the local permissions processes. The best architects will pilot your project through the Oxfordshire regulations and liaise with you throughout the life of your home extension, renovation or new build.