April 13, 2021

We are delighted to be working at Robert Blake Science College again 10 years after completion of the school with BAM Construction. The building and landscape were looking fantastic on a moody spring day last week when we visited.  It was great to be able to tour the building with the school and see how well the building is being used and cared for.  We are now looking at some sustainable adaption of the building to meet changing needs.

March 18, 2021

Congratulations to Gabby Ziliute who recently passed her Part III professional exams to become an architect and did so despite the additional challenges presented by the pandemic.  Gabby joined us in 2018 bringing with her experience of both architectural and public realm landscape work making her a great fit for our team.  She has since worked on a range of projects including education projects at a range of scales and also a large scale urban expansion scheme.  We look forward to seeing her career develop further.

NVB has a long association with the University of Bath providing placements for students, many of whom have returned to join us full time as graduates.  We have benefited greatly from their talents and their diverse range of life experiences.  Long may it continue.

January 21, 2021

We are excited to be developing plans for a new house in rural Wiltshire with expansive views towards Salisbury Plain. Sitting on the edge of a village, it is conceived as a cluster of small buildings connected by a covered walkway. The building is surrounded by character gardens and addresses a large wildflower meadow which is to include a swimming pond and rewilding areas.

January 13, 2021

This week brought some great progress photographs of our new Aldenham Prep School as it nears completion.  The challenges of the pandemic have meant that good teamwork and communication have been essential in keeping the project moving.

The 1,900 sq. m building will provide a new home for the prep school and nursery with excellent facilities for both indoor and outdoor learning.  NVB were tasked with creating a building which made a strong positive impression on the arriving visitor, but yet is the right scale to make young children feel at home.  Our architectural and landscape teams worked hand in hand to seamlessly blend the building and play areas on this sensitive Green Belt site.

The team has included our clients Aldenham Prep School, Bidwells, Stace, Rumball Sedgwick, Phoenix Construction, Integral Engineering Design,  and BSD-SVM.  The project is due for completion later this spring.

July 20, 2020

NVB have been announced as Finalists in the Building Design Architect of the Year Awards.  They have been shortlisted for Education Architect of the Year.   In contrast to other awards which recognise a single building,  the selection criteria states that “the judges will be looking for evidence of all-round design excellence and fitness for purpose over a body of work”.

NVB submitted four projects from our education work, three of which are complete, and one which is due to commence construction later in the year.  The projects were The Michael Malnik Centre for Music and Media at Leighton Park School, Dauntsey’s School Sports Pavilion, Dean Close School Day Houses and a new Academic Hub for Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School.  Details of the three completed projects can be found in our portfolio.

We have been shortlisted along with a talented field comprising of Architype, Child Graddon Lewis, Cottrell and Vermeulen, HKS, Levitt Bernstein, Penoyre and Prasad, and Scott Brownrigg.  The winner will be announced at an award event in October.

June 8, 2020

A fascinating programme from on BBC Radio 4 about the very different take Frome Town Council have on getting things done in local politics. We were proud to play a part in bringing the neglected building which is now their home back to life.  You can still hear the programme here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jf7s

We get a huge amount of satisfaction out of this kind of community project and from breathing new sustainable life into tired buildings.  See our portfolio pages for more of our civic and community projects.

April 17, 2020

It was great to see our Tiger House for Longleat on the BBC’s Animal Park programme this week.  It was such an amazing privilege to be involved with this project to protect such magnificent creatures.  We would urge you to take a look. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000hb25/animal-park-cutdowns-episode-13

We have a range of animal conservation, wildlife and veterinary projects in our portfolio.

April 8, 2020

Anyone who says it’s business as usual is lying, but we are adapting well. There is a temptation to hunker down and just deal with the items that are on your desk already, but some of our clients have decided that this is a great opportunity to make progress on feasibility and viability studies in a range of sectors.

We admire that attitude. Make use of the time to focus.

If your organisation has something in mind, we can initiate new projects without having to wait for the current turmoil to subside. That way, when something more like normal service resumes, you will be in a great position to move forward.

A business continuity plan has a nicely ordered sound to it, but the real test is in the implementation. We have been very pleasantly surprised by how well the office has been functioning with remote working. We have our bandwidth-heavy BIM models working very smoothly via a VPN link to our servers. Communication and virtual meetings are working well. Planning applications are still going in. We have even hosted a stakeholder engagement workshop.

These are not normal times, but they can be highly productive times. We can help you use this time to think strategically about your projects.

March 4, 2020

In 1990, we became NVB Architects.  A lot has happened in thirty years and yet this was just the latest stage in the evolution of our practice, the history of which goes back much further.  In another thirty years’ time it will be 2050, by which time the government has committed to being CO₂ neutral.

There is a lot to do, but we are excited about the challenges of our next chapter and we have a great team.

Thirty years ago, none of us could have predicted the extent to which the internet would change the way we work and play, but we adapt and grow.

By 2050, the young people who come to us for work experience will be established in whatever career they decide to pursue.

The children learning in the schools we have designed will be leaders in their field.

What we can be sure of is that in 2050, our work will still be about people, adaption, evolution and necessity, approached with rigour and creativity.

February 6, 2020

Works are well underway at St Bartholomew’s Primary School in Royal Wootton Bassett for the Diocese of Salisbury. The project will increase the form of intake providing 4 new classrooms, a studio hall, new entrance, improved admin facilities and associated external plan space. The design is based around 3 simple ‘barn’ structures presenting a smart new entrance to the school.