Designate design have just been appointed to develop a house in Lambeth to make a large loft usable. This is for a large family house in Herne Hill. The ridgeline of the roof will be raised and a new wet room and stairs will be built. June 2013
Designate Design have won the tender to build a school extension in Portslade, beating two competitors to the post! We are starting the concept and tender stages immediately! The client is the the Swedish Folk School/Loxdale Centre. January 2013
Two houses, nicknamed “Narnia” houses on a sensitive site in Portslade have been given permission in principle by Brighton Council. The planners would like changes, but generally accept that two houses on this Portslade site are acceptable. April 2013
Designate Design have been asked for a proposal to extend a private nursery school in South London. The site sits next to a cemetry. and the space is limited. The proposal includes a penthouse on the top floor, and a basement.
Designate Design have completed a glass roofed extension, in the face of opposition from the local planning authority and handed over the project, fully built and beautiful! It has been a great project, results exceed expectations. February 2013
Designate Design are interested in buildings worth £5-10M for purchase by an Eastern property developer to add to their portfolio. We are looking for buildings in Westminster Kensington and Chelsea. Please contact us if you know of suitable properties.
Working with Tracey Saunders interiors we have refurbished a house in Rudall Crescent, Hampstead. Works included full interior design service, kitchen, bathrooms and making good throughout.
A Pimlico apartment has been refurbished, with Meltons interiors. This included a full survey, a wall unit with specialist A/V facilities, and complete interior redecoration services
Working in conjumction with Tracey Saunders, Designate Design have completed the refurbishment of a £2m apartment behind Harrods. The works have taken four months to complete.
To whom it may concern.
I am writing to recommend Ivan McFie as an architect.
I have had dealings with several architects in the past, either directly, or indirectly through other family members. I won’t name names, but some of them were very highly regarded, appearing on Grand Designs, in the newspapers…
and so forth. To be frank they have all been a nightmare to interact with. The bills seem to be out of control, and you are presented with ridiculously complex contracts, and bills for work you didn’t even know was being carried out, often by unknown juniors. Twice there has had to be a negotiated bill for work undertaken “mistakenly”, but the kind of mistake that can only happen through wilful misunderstanding, if I’m honest with myself about what I really think they were up to. Also the designs all seemed to have basic flaws in them. No matter how often you might point them out, they were never corrected. To be frank, talking with all these other architects about the actual design was like talking at a brick wall. No meaningful feedback or changes ever seemed to reach the plans themselves, which often continued down wild goose chases, until they were eventually abandoned at great cost.
Ivan is the total opposite in every respect. He is a real, singular individual you can talk too, with great clarity of mind and organisation of facts. The fees are clear, and make sense as regards the stages involved, and have been excellent value. He seems to remember and take on every point that is thrown his way and incorporate all the best ideas in his designs. Everything is discussed and evaluated until the optimum design is reached. He also does research off his own bat, and even managed to get a final environmental assessment carried out on my recent plans for two detached houses on a patch of land I own in an environmentally sensitive area, with a Green-led council.
I couldn’t be happier with him and would recommend him without hesitation. (My planning agent who works with a wide variety of architectural firms everyday told me he feels the same way – that Ivan is great.)
I would also say that Ivan is a very artistic soul and his designs are capable of being at that extremely rarefied level of virtuosity that might set him out as a truly great architect one day. Yet at the same time, you get what you wanted. He really hits the ‘sweet spot’. I’ll certainly use him from now on.
Yours faithfully
Tim J (Brighton)
The competition is fierce! Designate Design are engaged in a competion to win the contract to design a pair of houses in Portslade near Brighton, for a local client. There are five local architects in the running! Its a challenging site with restrictions.
Ivan McFie is the director of Designate Design. He has many years experience working in traditional architectural practices of all kinds. These include ‘Barrier Free Building Design’ a specialist residential practice for people with disabilities, MEDA/lloyd Northover, a retail architectural consultancy, at which he spent 5 years
Designate Design Ltd was established in 2012. Works include residential extensions, new build housing, interiors and school buildings. Designate Design have made planning applications, building control applications, and build projects
Designate Design were contacted by Tracey Saunders interiors to work on a £2M apartment in Hans Place, behind Harrods, for a Russian client. The brief included a full interior design service.
We completed an initial survey of the apartment. The brief included a luxury specification; glitter balls in the sitting room, inlaid gold tiling in the bathroom; built in wardrobes, full refurbishment throughout.
It is really a very special apartment for a discerning client. It is an exceptional place to live, having been finished to an exteremely high standard. It has also added value to the flat far in excess of the cost of the refurbishment.
.
n Summer 2012 Designate design were approached about a project for a pair of houses on land running through an avenue of trees in Portslade, Brighton. The avenue was an old drive for a manor house which had subsequebntly been demolished, and a block of flats stood in its place.
Its a challenging site, with restrictions because of schools to either side, and the need to be sensitive to nature, including an old badger sett. We responded with a proposal that took into account the needs of the neighbourhood, and which achieves a high level of sustainibility.
Designate Design worked with the carpenter, who installed a shelf for the WC to hang from, providing working drawings. After the floor tiling was laid, porcelain was fitted, followed by wall tiling
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This project was for a bathroom refurbishment on a budget; A full survey was carried out, followed by a search for materials, tiles, porcelain and fittings. When these had been agreed, work started
Radiators, mirrors and shower screens followed. The interior has the potential to be beautiful when finished, as well as being a much more efficient as a space than the old bathroom