Testimonials
Architecture
Ecclesiastical
Gerald West
You refer to the project to demolish the old church building and build a completely new Church on the site of the old one for Cholmeley Evangelical Church in Archway Road, Highgate, London N6. The project was a successful one and was undertaken at an early stage in your professional career. The building is still looking good. It is continuing to fulfil the brief we gave you and to accommodate the inevitable changes in our needs which have occurred since then. It has needed only the expected routine maintenance over that time, which is a tribute to your specification! The fact that the building featured in the AJ Building Design and was included in the Annual Open House catalogue is a tribute to your design.
Residential
Private client
We appointed Noel as our architect because of his experience of working with historic buildings in traditional neighbourhoods. Noel fully understood our brief and provided us with the guidance and designs we needed to erect a new three storey building in a conservation area. The design fitted in seamlessly with the historic context and provided us with a very comfortable London residence. We are very happy with his service and the resulting completed building.
Private client
Renovation of two Grade II listed 16th Century timber frame structures which had fallen into disrepair, exasperated by crude Victorian additions. The innovative restorations included repairs to the timber structures, re-cladding of the external wall fabrics and conversion to living accommodation at first floor level taking advantage of the exposed timber roof structures with bedrooms at ground level. The result was an astounding success, featuring on Anglia Television news on completion.
Private client
Conversion of a grade II listed 18th Century time frame, 4 storey weavers terraced house from domestic use to offices. A two storey addition was sensitively added at the rear of the property, the design of which was negotiated with English Heritage during the planning application process. The front of the building was restored to its original design and internal panelling was upgraded to half hour fire resisting by agreement with English Heritage. The building was successfully sold on completion to an investment company.
Commercial
Christine Ayer
Their challenge was to renovate and fit out new office accommodation in Central London for the 150 staff that were to be employed in the company by the end of January the following year. With no time to spare they were responsible for the design and project management. They assisted us to establish the brief, the budget and the programme. Also, they nominated the main contractor, communications, security, and furniture sub-contractors. Considering these constraints, we did not have the luxury to doubt the ability of our consultants. Our total confidence in the team that NIA assembled was mandatory. Naturally the pressure existed, but once we had started we were never in doubt that the team would meet the targets established by the required dates. If the same circumstances arose again I would have no difficulty in again, using NIA and the team they assembled
Urbanism
Henry Rumbold M.B.E
Noel is an architect with good understanding of traditional construction detailing and we have worked together successfully on two live built projects for The Princes Foundation for the building community Noel as architect with his own practise and me in charge of the day to day running of the site This included re-cycling stone, the use of locally quarried stone and a green timber frame. The most recent being a performance stage at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Our collaboration had some challenges including bringing together young craft apprentices, some mainstream engineering practice and the coldest winter on record. The fine building is a tribute to the collective spirit engendered on the project and gained the approval of The Prince of Wales on his inspection of the completed structure. I would recommend Noel as an architect for any traditional building project.
Dr Matthew Hardy
I have known Noel since 2008 when he first worked with the Prince's Foundation, first in the Projects team and then later in the Education and latterly as Foundation representative in Wales. We taught on a Summer School in Wales together, and I invited him on several occasions to run a Masterclass for our MA in Sustainable Urbanism students. I have found Noel to be an exceptionally thoughtful and careful person, very good in working with and alongside others, and an outstanding mentor for our students, bringing out really excellent results from all students with whom he worked. Noel's classes were always well prepared and developed from his own individual research on the little-known Mediaeval Zaehringer towns in German-speaking Switzerland. Noel was able to draw out the principles underlying the development of these towns as a series of object lessons in sustainable urban development, with successive classes over 3 years each developing on the basis of his research. Noel was also a tireless and efficient at networking across England and Wales. When our Summer School faced a crisis due to the last-minute unavailability of a planned building site, Noel rolled his sleeves up and was able to find a replacement site within a matter of days. The building that resulted from the Summer School that Noel and I taught, a Band Stand at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, was the most ambitious and impressive building our students ever completed. I have no hesitation in recommending Noel, and would be happy to act as his referee, should he need one.
Peter Davies
Noel has a real depth of understanding and a track record in building communities based on an extensive portfolio of facilitation in design and development in communities across the UK
Pauline Hawkes
Noel is brilliant. We’re so happy that he’s our architect and we have complete trust in him to do the right thing on our projects. We also like that he has an understanding of Urban life and this reflects in his work and he is an artist which to me adds creatively to his outlook for the finalising of the drawings.
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