Architects Richmond
About us
Richmond is that unique of London neighbourhoods: a true village within the city. Its heritage landscape covers London’s most gracious architectural eras – Georgian, Regency, Victorian – and the built fabric is fiercely protected. Walking the cobbled, lantern-lit streets from park to park feels like a throwback. And yet, if you want to update a home in Richmond, there are many ways to alter a dated floorplan or a poky kitchen.
Expanding or improving a home in Richmond requires permission from the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames. Over 10 years, Scenario Architecture has forged successful relationships with planning departments across London, and will be able to see through a renovation or expansion with a deft hand and compassionate eye. We are one of the most coveted boutique residential architecture practices for our contemporary treatment of heritage London homes.
As young graduates of the Architecture Association, we formed Scenario in 2007, bringing a unique vision for a truly collaborative architecture into being. With our fresh approach to residential architecture in historic homes, we’ve built up a portfolio of striking projects that speak to the changing lifestyles of today’s Londoners. A highly functional home is the product of a deep understanding of each client. Scenario’s tailor-made homes tell a story about their owners’ needs and ambitions – not about ourselves.
We were already considered one of the top practices working in London when our landmark project Scenario House was shortlisted for the RIBA London Awards in 2018. A Victorian conversion with sweeping spaces, soaring ceilings and singular details, it demonstrates our commitment to period properties and the modern needs of Londoners today. Homeowners seeking architects, Richmond based, should examine its fresh, customised approach to a typical London heritage home.
Your Richmond project
Are you looking into architects for a residential project in Richmond? Scenario can help. We’ve put together an illustrated rundown of the architectural process to help you understand what it entails, whether you’re planning to extend your home or renovate – or even build a new home entirely.
Home renovations and extensions must be approved by the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames. Our successful track record securing planning permission on behalf of our clients will be of use when you set out to navigate that process. We will work collaboratively with Richmond officials to see through your application.
Tip
Discover if your chosen architect has had success steering planning applications through your local council. Visit the Camden Council website, click on “Planning and Building Control”, go into the search engine for planning applications and type in your agent’s name.
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
At Scenario Architecture, we tackle residential architecture of every scale and scope. We’ve taken on interior refurbishments and full renovations in the most historic homes, establishing a logical contrast between old and new. From our London studio, we offer a totally bespoke service with our team of highly skilled architects.
We collaborate closely with all our clients from the initial meetings and drawings, through planning, tender and construction. We complete all our projects on time and on budget. If you’re searching for an architect, Richmond based, check out our portfolio of high-end residential projects.
We use 3D design technology in all our work. This Chartered Institute of Building case study – featuring a Scenario Architecture project – demonstrates the benefits of this advanced technology for domestic architecture. As a RIBA Chartered Practice, Scenario complies with RIBA’s strict health and safety criteria.
In our client's words
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.
Great, professional service. Good drawings and models and ultimately passed planning at the first attempt with Hackney Council. Would certainly recommend!
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.
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 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
Though its neighbours the Sheens were mentioned in the Domesday Book, Richmond came into being during the reign of King Henry VII, the former Earl of Richmond in Yorkshire. He built Richmond Palace on the River Thames, only a few remains of which survive. Ever since, the neighbourhood hosted some of the most recognised names in British lore: writers like Alexander Pope and Virginia Woolf; actors like Richard Burton; royals back to Queen Elizabeth I, who stayed at Richmond Palace en route between Hampton Court and Woodstock.
The allure of Richmond’s location cannot be overstated. It is surrounded by green and blue: deer parks, heaths and golf courses. The spectacular Thames, which dips toward the neighbourhood on both sides, is where sculls and pleasure-boats glide all year long – to stroll along the river on a sunny morning is to be thrust back some 300 years. Just upriver is Sion Park, with its 16th-century crenellations. Downstream is Marble Hill, one of a handful of grand, old houses where wealthy city types stayed centuries ago. Abutting the old deer park is Kew Gardens, which recently reopened Temperate House, a hanger-sized Victorian glasshouse. Some say there are 2,500 deer living in the park today.
The District Line will whiz you into the City, yet breaking away from the bustle of town is easy when you’re living in Richmond, with Heathrow Airport barely 30 minutes away and all of the West Country beyond. Old Windsor is closer to Richmond than Soho.
The elegant Georgian townhouses abutting the park and lining the river bear special heritage status – they deserve it, having escaped the worst of the bombs during the Second World War. If you were after a home with history, though, you’d find a wealth of them, resembling the finest in mien and stature. A brown-brick cottage with a white picket fence, a Regency terrace as graceful as any in Kensington, a detached Georgian with a park view… they’re all available in Richmond, and each can be tailored to the needs of a growing family. Not only are the houses protected by conservation rules, but the bakeries, the schools, pubs and hotels. So even if you’ve opted to live somewhere new, your views will forever be “period”.
Advice
View AllFrequently Asked Questions
- 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.