architecture:nw ltd - Solihull

James Bradley

Nick carried out a variety of work for us and we found him highly competent and a pleasure to deal with.
Our first contact was to provide an outline design for a new house we proposed to build. We wished this to be modern in design but to complement the generally attractive traditional red-brick houses typical of the village, especially in its Conservation Area. We were very impressed with the way in which he analysed our needs and took on board our ideas, but used his own considerable skills to develop a very attractive design. Unfortunately, to our frustration, we were not able in the end to buy the site.
We subsequently asked Nick to design the renovation of a Victorian ‘coach house’. This was quite small, two floors each of about 40 sq metres. Nick was ingenious in the ways in which he made good use of this constrained space and respected the features of the Victorian building. He took great care over the details of the design and the specification for complete renovation, prepared contract documents which provided a very clear basis for the builder, and supervised the building works effectively. In all this he was professional and business-like in his dealings with us. We are very pleased with the end product, which has a certain “wow” factor and has attracted admiration from architect members of our family and from all who have seen it.

Dawn Reed

Nick helped us with a big extension at the side of our house. He was super helpful, guided us when needed and told us what was and wasn't possible. He listened to what we wanted and helped us create a space that is perfect for our needs. Nick took us through the planning process easily and made everything as stress-free as possible.

It says a lot as our builder has now asked Nick to quote on his own project!

Thanks Nick!

Tim Landreth

I have known Nick for many years both when working for a “big” practice and more recently in his own venture.

The projects that he designed for us at the Old Library in Shirley and Bentley Manor in Dorridge enabled us to grow our business and to work within some very tight timelines as far as planning and construction were concerned.

Nick’s attention to detail is fantastic and I would wholeheartedly recommend him for all sorts of projects, but particularly those where the design needs to make use of existing space in the most efficient manner, taking into account quite tricky planning issues.

We are now looking for the next project for Nick to help us with!

Harriet Warner

Nick Woodcock of architecture:nw was hired to design (with full technical specification) and project manage the remodelling and rebuilding of our Edwardian farmhouse. The project ran for 1 year initially with an 18 month follow up period for snagging and completion of outstanding items together with the construction of a barn style garage.

This was a challenging, technically demanding and incredibly involved project which Nick handled with professionalism, confidence, a detailed and experienced eye and a continual ability to be the lynchpin between client and builder. It was his drive, experience and knowledge that helped to push the build forward, engineer the beautiful building which ensued and ensure that all the relevant specifications were set out and adhered to. Indeed, the initial specification document alone ran to almost 100 pages.

Nick has an excellent design aesthetic and brings both the artist's eye and the architect's skill to a project. This not only resulted in some lovely flourishes to the house overall but ensured that the flow of the building and it's practical use (such as light room plans and overall usability) is excellent. He is however, happy to take guidance from us and listened to our needs and requirements and his interpretation of what we wanted was absolutely perfect. He was also happy to listen to our builder and be guided by what was sometimes a small compromise to the design or building product specified. This ensured that the project continued to run smoothly and continuously throughout the year long build.

His administration of both the contract documents and technical drawings was excellent. At any point, it was possible to call for any one of over 100 drawings and ask for minor modifications or an explanation of a technical detail. All relevant parties were communicated with at all times and made aware of any changes. Nick was also very clear about the roles and responsibilities of both the client and the builder and was confident in advising us of these. At no point did we, as clients, feel unclear about costs, our legal position, or our and the builder’s responsibility.

Nick is also very good at being able to speak the language of the builders having an excellent technical and practical knowledge of the actual build process and the latest products, innovations and practical shortcuts for the end result.

Too often, clients say that their project was a difficult process or that they would change significant elements of the overall finished build. We are very happy to say that none of this happened to us and this was due in a very large part to the skill, professionalism and talent of Nick Woodcock. As a result of his help, guidance and input we would embark on a project of this scale and complexity again without a moment's notice. We would also be delighted to recommend him to anyone who is considering a construction project of any kind.

Paul Reeve

We had a fantastic experience using Nick and his team on our self build new home.
Right from the first concept / feasability meetings his knowledge and flare were endering. Nick is a very likeable chap who installed belief in my wife and I to take some chances on design that other architects that we met failed to come close.
He managed to hit our brief but also managed to go further and designed spaces within our home that we would never have imagned ourselves like our full hight internal aspects.
Even now as we are pretty much complete 2 or 3 years on we catch angles and lines of sight that I know Nick intended all along in his design its only now as we use the building for different functions with our family and the sun floods though the house that we truly appreciate his hard efforts.
We have neighbours pass by on their evening walks that constantly thank us for what we've done to the street and increased the valus of their own homes - this is mainly down to Nicks design and us sticking to his specification. - Thankyou for all your help Nick?

Guy Wicks

NIck was very prompt in providing advice concerning a potential driveway project and the way that this should go to properly comply with the drainage regulations. Suitable materials and contacts were suggested to take it further. These regulations known as SuDs are relatively unknown but could have huge impact if the work fell short on specification and the council chose to serve an enforecement notice at a later date and cause a load of trouble when selling the house. Thanks to Nick I am well on the way to finalising my plans and appointing a knowlegeable contractor to carry out the work.

James D

Excellent service and really responsive to our brief and showed great creativity to get us the design and planning permission we wanted.