Colin Macinnes Architectural Design

Colin helped us redesign our loft from an oddly shaped, very uninspiring one bedroom plus bathroom area into two double bedrooms and stylish bathroom. Our brief to him was to come up with a design that would give us the extra bedroom, get of two ugly structural columns in the middle of the existing room and make use of wasted space. We are delighted with the end result. Colin is brilliant to deal with. He is creative, very responsive, and is excellent at communicating in writing and in person/ over the phone. He understood the brief perfectly and presented us with a range of possible options. We really felt that he was working with us to produce the best possible outcome throughout the build, and he was great at helping to sort out problems with the builder. After working with architects before who provided a good but not great service, we were really impressed with the outstanding service that Colin provided. We would use him again without hesitation and recommend him unreservedly.

Colin designed for me a project to extend my house in East Dulwich to the rear and in the loft. I really enjoy the process and its creativity. He came with some really interesting out-of-the-box ideas with some really cleaver use of the space Seb

Working with Colin was excellent from beginning to end. He understood the brief perfectly, even the bits we hadn’t specified, and he was full of good, practical ideas for developing and using a couple of quite small, potentially awkward spaces. He is a very good space planner, able to think ahead in three dimensions, but also handles the operational side of his projects extremely well - including things such as planning applications, building regulations, contract details and financial accounting. We hired Colin for management of the project in addition to the planning stages, and this went really well. He developed a friendly but professional relationship with the contractors, and there were no major snags along the way. We are very pleased with the end result, which is an attractive addition to the house as well as a useful extra space.

We did a DIY conversion of our small loft space. Colin really understood our approach to detail, and had no issues with the small scope of the project. Colin provided drawings and specs for the insulation, including dwarf wall construction. This was really helpful because: 1) We had a very clear plan to work from. His drawings and advice helped us visualise and understand this significant part of the project. 2) We had great documentation to submit to Building Control. This was especially helpful when I had to cite the BS standards Colin had researched & referenced to one particularly awkward council inspector. Colin didn't even mind when I called him immediately after the visit from the above inspector! I'd definitely contact Colin again for any project I had in mind.

Colin prepared the designs for my loft extension in a Victorian London house. He was very attentive, he helped me work through a wide range of choices, and he was highly patient in waiting for my feedback at each stage. He provided clear 3-D drawings and files, and plans / 2-D designs to enable me to approach builders for quotes. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending Colin.

Colin has been great to work with. He listened to our needs and ideas and provided thoughtful solutions. He has been invaluable in providing advice during the whole process. Thanks Colin.

See Herne Hill gallery extension photos We met Colin when we saw his self build at 15b Herne Hill Road, which you can see on this website too. We loved what he had done with it. We could see he had a great eye for detail, real creativity, understood the actual building process himself, and also wanted to make things beautiful without spending a fortune. So we asked him to act as architect for our rear extension. We wanted to replace our old, plastic conservatory, which was freezing or boiling, and had a low roof which cut off the view of the garden and cut out light from the middle of the house. Colin came up with a brilliant, elegant, effective and affordable solution. Personally, we think it looks like it cost twice what it did. £80k plus Colin’s fees. We love it and everybody loves it. Colin was great to work with. We had really taken in Kevin McCloud’s advice on Grand Designs, to make all your mistakes and change your mind in pencil and paper (well 3D computer drawings these days) rather than after you have started building. So we took a LONG time to decide on exactly what we wanted. And Colin was amazingly patient with us. It also worked, because once we started the job, we didn’t have to make many more decisions at all, which kept the price down and kept the build shorter (although there were some problems with the builder which weren’t Colin’s fault which delayed things). As well as designing, Colin helped us get planning permission, and find builders, engineers, quantity surveyors and contract advice. He also helped oversee the build itself and our only regret is not asking him to more formally project manage it, as I think if the builders had had to listen to him even more, it would have been even smoother.