Stuart Martin Architects

Re Stuart Martin RIBA After going through a short selection process, we invited Stuart Martin Architects to design a new house for us in East Devon in 2007. We had bought a sloping site of just over half an acre in a small village close to Sidmouth. The plan was to replace the existing dilapidated small 3 bedroomed property and build a larger one more suited to our forthcoming retirement needs. We did our best to “future proof” it with at grade entrances on both main levels and a built-in lift for when we find stairs impossible. We love the location so much, we do not want to have to move prematurely! The style we had in mind was to embrace the Arts and Crafts period and in talking this through with Stuart he seemed to be passionate about this period and apparently had studied several Lutyens properties during his career. He is of course best known for creating some most wonderful new “period” Country Houses. Whilst our proposals were far more modest that Stuart normally entertains, to our delight he agreed to take on the challenge and listened carefully to what we wanted. East Devon District Council has a (deserved) reputation for absurdly tough planning controls and since we fell within the village conservation area, had the National Trust and local conservation society woodland as immediate neighbours, were in an AONB close to the South Devon Way national footpath and had outstanding views of the sea (making the site somewhat prominent) Stuart had his work cut out! It took over 3 years to achieve planning permission but throughout Stuart remained calm, patient and professional. The rest of us were seething! What we liked most about Stuart was his faithfulness to our brief and his ease to work with. He would listen to what we had in mind, produce his little sketchbook and draw a solution – 9 times out of 10 coming up with exactly what we had envisioned. Maybe sometimes his solutions were out of our budget, but he was gracious enough to accept some “value engineering” exercises to make things affordable, aided we must say by an excellent QS, Peter Hayter. Stuart didn’t create our new home alone, with his help and guidance a great complimentary team was put together and all seemed reasonably harmonious. We were also guided to excellent builders, Kenn Biggs and Co from Bath. This guidance is exactly what the client needs. Stuart is a brilliant design creator with an eye for architectural detail, but for us, he simply and wonderfully helped create our dream house. Thank you Stuart.

Hugely talented and caring Architect with a tremendous feel for the building & spaces created to reflect the Clients requirements – whether a listed refurbishment, conversion or new build complex. Uncanny knack of producing fine looking results from previously plain buildings which immediately sit into the landscape as if having been there forever. We have worked on a significant number of projects with this Architect over a period of almost 20 years

I have worked with Stuart Martin Architects for 15 years and have just completed another successful job with them. Their drawings are excellent, well detailed and information flow is always as required, to allow our construction programmes to be met. They are a great practice to work with embracing collaborative working, to achieve the required result. The designs are also fantastic.

Stuart Martin and his excellent team took on the unenviable task of bring some kind of sense to our farm. It had been tinkered with several times in the last few hundred years, and the result was a series of spaces (inside & out) that didn't hang together. The scheme that Stuart designed is harmonious and elegant - and so many times better than we ever imagined it could be. We're building madly at the moment, mired in mud, but very excited to see the finished article. Stuart and his team have been a pleasure to work with: super-responsive and super-creative. I've worked with several architects before, but never with this degree of success.

We employed Stuart Martin back in March 2004 to design our new build house. We laid out our design principles and just, after two design presentations, he produced a final concept that we totally approved and presented for planning application. He was the key person in persuading a somewhat difficult council architect the reasons for his designs. I will never forget the architect saluting Stuart for his presentation. He had won this initial planning stage. Planning was approved and from thereon Stuart was most helpful from groundworks and upwards. Frequent site visits and helpful consultations on the inevitable construction hiccups. Apart from the main building construction, what we greatly appreciated was his huge input into the internal details. He produced designs for doors, architraves etc and wonderful fireplace surrounds. We adopted them all. I would absolutely have no hesitation in employing SM Architects for any design and build project that we may have in the future.

SM have done/are doing 4 projects for me: a)A Dorset farmhouse with 3 cottages, large barn and ancillary buildings b)A large London house c)a terraced London house. We are also doing d)Another farmhouse. Stuart is an inspired visionary. He has a great eye. He listens. He is lovely to work with but I do have luxury of employing a part time project manager to chase the firm and co-ordinate everything. I always enjoy my SM meetings.

Stuart Martin Architects completely remodelled and renovated an existing, rather tired and warren-like 1930s house into a beautiful, spacious family home in the Georgian style, finished April 2016. We were very involved in the project from start to finish, and found Stuart and his colleague Matthew Bakewell a great team to work with: detailed and creative, as you would expect, but also responsive, patient and always happy to discuss other ideas - be they driven by the interior or landscape designers, by us or by our building contractor, as the project progressed. The fact that they were a couple of hours' drive away did not prove to be an issue and we would recommend them whole-heartedly.