Nigel White, Architect, Brens, Tarn, Midi-Pyrenees

Description:

Our work methods and fees:

I have trained and worked in both England and France and have now specialized in residential and commercial design. We offer a full architectural and project management service. Our input varies from simple advice, sketch proposals and feasibility studies through to planning permission, detailed design and project management.

Our design approach:

Rather than working within a fixed style, our designs vary according to the design brief and aspirations of each of our clients. The sketch design work is used as a sounding board  to help us understand your design priorities , your lifestyle and the specific character of each site.

Much of our time is devoted to the sketch design phase and, as far as possible, meetings will be held on site.  This helps to validate our ideas and improves our understanding of building conditions, climate, and construction difficulties. These sketch designs are also used to compare construction costs, style, and ease of use.

We generally use working models and free hand sketches for our project work. The scale models help set the buildings in their surroundings and improves our understanding of the volume, the lighting possibilities and views, and ultimately the position and size the windows and doors. I prefer this “hands on” approach to the 3D computer designs

Our projects

The majority involve renovation projects for which we provide a full project management service. This includes the feasibility studies, surveys, sketch proposals and preparation of models, budget estimates, planning permission, and general project management. Although we generally work with a selected group of our own builders clients are free to choose there own tradesmen.

New builds provide the opportunity for modern designs and a wider variety of building materials and construction methods. Proportionally these projects account for 35% of our overall portfolio. In the past we have used monomer, Euromac 2 (using polystyrene shuttering), mud blocks, in addition to the traditional materials. I have no real preference for any one system preferring to choose according to the site conditions, cost, availability, and access. The South of France experiences relatively mild winters, and long hot summers. I prefer creating conditions with a high thermal inertia. (This thermal stability being useful in regions where the doors are generally left open and incoming warm outside air would otherwise overheat these interiors). 

Our firm is happy to work on projects throughout the South of France. The quality of the road network in France allows us to travel large distances easily. As a general guideline we prefer to limit our projects to 21/2 hours drive so that a morning meeting at 9am leaves enough time to be back in the office for 2pm. We generally organise weekly site meetings for the management of our larger projects.

For further details and information, please either phone on 0033 (0)5 63 33 25 20 or use the enquiry form below.