The team at Scenario Architecture specialises in restoring and enhancing the heritage fabric of London and the Southeast. We take a unique approach to our residential projects, applying contemporary angles to housing stock dating back centuries and building anew. Working throughout Greater London for more than a decade, we represent a new archetype for contemporary living: luxurious yet accessible, open and comfortable.
We founded Scenario in 2007 with a passion for client-led residential design that merges the contemporary with England’s incomparable period architecture. Our clients see us through every stage of the design process, so the finished product is entirely tailor-made – a home that respects its past, present and future and deeply understands the residents.
In 2018 our landmark project Scenario House was shortlisted for the RIBA London Awards. The Victorian conversion and extension in East London exemplifies our fresh, customised approach and our commitment to the needs of today’s homeowners.
Your intention to build a house
Read our illustrated synopsis of the planning processes across London and the Southeast. It will help you to understand and navigate the permissions stage of your project, whether you’re undertaking a home extension, renovation or new-build.
Building, rebuilding or expanding a home in Sevenoaks requires adherence to building regulations dictated by the Sevenoaks District Council. This takes time and perseverance, but a good architect can guide you through the process. Scenario Architecture has a flawless record securing planning permission for our clients, and can help homeowners negotiate with local councils across the southeast.
We’ve created this guide to help steer you through planning in Sevenoaks, London and the Southeast. Download it below.
Tip
Discover if your architect has been successful in steering planning applications through your council. Visit you district council’s website, click on “Planning”, go into the search engine for planning applications and type in your agent’s name.Advice
We have created guides for homeowners to provide additional advice and help with your project. The following eBooks are currently available for you to download:1. Planning in London and the home counties - A guide for homeowners
2. Self build - A guide to building your own new build home
Build a house with Scenario Architecture
Working with Scenario Architecture on your Sevenoaks project
Further Reading
The affluent, family-oriented reputation of Sevenoaks makes it a great place to come from, live in and move to. Located a few moments outside the M25 ring road, it connects to London Bridge Station in less than a half hour and Charing Cross thereafter, making it popular with professionals. And the wealth of top schools – public and private – produces the next generation.
Like most market towns south of London, the area grew up more than a thousand years ago. A logical stop between the Kent coast and the city of London, it became popular with travellers and pilgrims heading to and from Canterbury, inspiring its motto: Floreant Septum Quercus, or “May the Seven Oaks Flourish”. The Sevenoaks market, still a major presence in town, has operated constantly since the 1200s. The Vine cricket ground is the oldest in the world.
The whole of Sevenoaks is ringed by green, so that every home in town sits within walking distance of a vast park – most of them protected by the National Trust. The High Street, slicing the city in two halves, veers off into Deer Park, a bucolic idyll inhabited by red and fallow deer. The 1,000 wild acres are a vestige of the 15th-century Archbishop of Canterbury, who built the great house Knole at the southeastern edge of town 600 years ago. The lavish stately home passed down to King Henry VII and then to Queen Elizabeth I – she gave it to her relatives the Sackvilles, who maintain it to this very day. The house has its own 26-acre walled garden, which inspired writer Vita Sackville-West; the house itself inspired Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando.
Knole sets the tone for the elegant housing stock across Sevenoaks – which alternate between the local brown and red brick, with touches of white. Family homes dominate, running from small two-bedroom cottages to rambling estates. Homes bordering the parks tend to be the largest, oldest and most coveted.
But where many families feel they can make their mark is in the serpentine streets lined with postwar homes just outside the centre. Here, with the right architects, homeowners can add contemporary two-storey annexes to the rear façade, rooms over attached garages and expand basements beneath. If you’re interested in learning about the potential of extending or renovating a home in Sevenoaks, explore our site or ask your preferred architect. A good architect will pilot your project through the Sevenoaks regulations process and liaise with you throughout the life of your home extension or renovation.
In our clients 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.ADVICE
FAQ
- 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.
- 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.