Architecture & interiors · Lace Market, Nottingham

Architecture and
interiors, from
Nottingham.

A small studio in Nottingham's Lace Market. We take on a handful of houses, extensions, workplaces and listed buildings a year, and stay with each one from the first walk round the site to the last snag.

Start a projectSee the projects
Houses · Extensions · WorkplacesListed & heritage buildingsWorking across the Midlands
Low morning sun crossing the treads of an oak stair
Bridleway · Charnwood Forest
Film
The studio

A good building feels obvious once it's there, as if the site had been waiting for it.

We'd rather do fewer and do them properly. That takes time on the plot before anything gets drawn, and a studio small enough that the person who sketched it is the one standing in the mud at week thirty.

Founded 2014Five people, one roomAround eight projects a year
Selected work

Six from the last three years.

Move across a row for a look inside
Hartington HousePrivate houseDerbyshire Dales2025 Hartington House: a cluster of black timber roofs in open moorland Lenton VillaRear extensionLenton, Nottingham2025 Lenton Villa: a rendered single-storey extension on the back of a 1930s semi Quarry StudiosWorkplaceLeicester2024 Quarry Studios: a concrete hall with timber-lined walls and a glazed side Castle Gate ChambersListed buildingNottingham2024 Castle Gate Chambers: a Georgian brick townhouse with a black front door The Orchard RoomGarden extensionSouthwell2023 The Orchard Room: a glazed gable under a deep timber-lined roof, opening onto a brick terrace Trent BoathouseCivicTrent Embankment2024 Trent Boathouse: an exposed timber canopy against a clear sky
All ten projects, filterable by type Each one opens with a photo set and a short account of how it went.
How a job runs

From the first walk round to the year after handover.

The stages below follow the RIBA Plan of Work, which is the order most UK practices use. We've written them out below, with roughly when each one lands on a typical house.

What each stage costs

Walk the site, write the brief

Weeks 1 to 3

Before we draw anything we walk the plot with you, look at the neighbours, the light and the drains, and write down what the building has to do. Most briefs change once you've stood in the space.

Sketch, model, decide

Weeks 3 to 8

Rough plans and card models, two or three ways of doing it, and a cost check against your budget before you fall for one of them.

Planning

Weeks 8 to 20

We prepare the drawings and the application, submit it and deal with the council's questions. Plan for ten to twelve weeks from submission; sometimes it's quicker, and on a listed building it rarely is.

Drawings a builder can price

Weeks 20 to 32

Construction drawings, the structural engineer's work, Building Regulations and a specification down to the door handles. This is the stage that stops surprises later.

Tender

Weeks 32 to 38

We send the package to three builders we'd trust with our own houses, level the quotes so you're comparing like with like, and help you choose.

On site

From week 40

We visit every week, chair the site meetings, check the work against the drawings and certify what the builder gets paid, and when.

Handover, then the year after

Twelve months on

You get the keys, a folder with every drawing and warranty, and a walk round with us at twelve months to sort anything that has moved, cracked or bothered you.

What we do

Houses, workplaces and interiors.

A black timber house at dusk with its windows lit ResidentialHouses and extensionsNew houses, extensions, loft conversions and the awkward plots other people turn down.Residential work A board-marked concrete wall meeting a timber floor in a glazed hall CommercialWorkplaces and public buildingsStudios, offices, galleries and small civic buildings, usually on a fixed budget and a tight programme.Commercial work A black stone bath under a slot window, timber-lined walls either side InteriorsRooms, joinery and lightKitchens, bathrooms, staircases and whole-house interiors, drawn to the millimetre and built by people we know.Interiors work
Notes from the studio

Things we learned this year.

A white card model of a small house on a grey base
September 2026

Why we still build card models

A model costs a day and answers questions a rendering hides. On Bridleway the card version showed the kitchen would be dark by three in the afternoon. We moved the rooflight before anyone had bought a brick.

Timber-lined ceiling with a square rooflight cut into it
July 2026

The Orchard Room, a year on

We went back with a camera and a thermometer. The oak has silvered, there's moss in the terrace joints, and the room sat at 21 degrees on a July afternoon with the doors shut. That's what the deep eaves were for.

Folded timber shutters beside a tall sash window
May 2026

Getting planning on a listed building

Castle Gate took two pre-application meetings and a heritage statement the length of a short novel. The argument that won was reversibility: the new stair can come out again without leaving a mark. The conservation officer signed it off in nine weeks.

Start a project

Tell us about your site.

We take on around eight projects a year. Tell us about yours and we'll say whether we're the right studio for it, usually within two working days.

Tell us about itCall 0115 496 0114
StudioStudio 4, Weekday Yard
Lace Market, Nottingham NG1
HoursMonday to Friday, 9am to 6pm
First meetings on Saturday mornings by arrangement
First meetingFree, an hour, at the site if there is one
What to bring