October 11, 2024

We’ve come to the end of “work experience season” with another 8 students from schools across our area. We’ve also just passed the threshold of 100 students overall!!
We know this is a valuable experience, which was further validated from a contact this summer from a former student from 2015, Will Barker. Will has now qualified as an “Arkitekt” in Denmark and let us know that “it was the best pre-Uni experience that I had” and that he “had such a great time, that it inspired me to study architecture at Uni. Nine years later, I am now a qualified arkitekt in Denmark!”

Will’s work is featured in the sample of the student work in the image grid. These date back to 2009 with 3D views produced in SketchUp with the transition to Revit adding Enscape in more recent years, although hand-drawing is still the start for all their designs, as it is ours. We particularly love it when students find the libraries within these programmes as they lead to some brilliantly irreverent results as you’ll see.

The work experience programme we run gives a taste of the world of work as well as specifically into architecture and landscape design. We’re always impressed by the speed with which students pick up the skills, working through hand drawing, research and multiple software programmes all in one week, as demonstrated by this example by Jago: 360° View | Student Credit | Jago

We’ve included one such result in the link below which was one of our landscape architecture projects. This was based on an existing school courtyard in need of some TLC. This brought together our specialism in education design with a space that the students identify with, understanding the constraints as well as the possibilities.

We’re excited for the next 100 students to join us, to teach us something from their standpoints and for us to be part of their journey.

September 13, 2024

Director James McGillivray was asked by Building Design to reflect on winning the BD Education Architect of the Year:

The B in NVB (Mark Brierley) was often heard to say that we are just enclosing space for activity to happen. Whilst he was seriously underplaying the skill of the architect and landscape architect, he had got to the core of the question.

The way we work has evolved over a number of years rather than through a single declaration or manifesto and often we are too busy to consider it consciously. When challenged recently, we found that we were clumsy in articulating our ethos preferring to let the drawings do the talking. Winning Education Architect of the Year was therefore a welcome prompt to stand back and consider how we work and what we believe in.

Architecture shapes space for its (usually human) inhabitants. Of course, the critical point is in the quality of that shaping, the consideration of volume, proportion, touch, colour, texture, but if you don’t understand people, you cannot design for them. This applies equally whether you are designing smartphones, trousers or in our case, buildings and landscapes.
This goes beyond just ergonomics. This is about how people experience the building, how they feel about it? Do they move through it with ease? Is the play of light comfortable, inviting?
It goes further than aesthetics. Of course, buildings have to meet regulations and they are there to guide us, and to keep people safe, but sometimes, to use the well-worn saw, the law is indeed an ass. Why should we stick rigidly to the British Standard when we know that there is always a queue snaking down the corridor from the women’s loos at any cinema, concert or sports event you could care to mention? (more…)

August 14, 2024

After 35 years at NVB we wished Bill Button a very happy retirement at the end of July.  Since joining NVB in 1988, Bill has dedicated his time to the success of NVB.   For the last 23 years he has been instrumental in the development of the practice in his role as a director, whether involved in our International School work in the South East Asia, or steering us safely through the choppy waters of the pandemic.   He will be greatly missed not just for his skill as an architect and a leader but for his pastoral care for the whole NVB Team.

Bill’s retirement is a significant moment in the life of NVB, but is part of a long term succession and development plan and we are delighted to announce the promotion of Jenny Hyden to Associate.  Jenny joined us as landscape team leader when Peter Baker was promoted to Landscape Director two years ago and Jenny’s promotion is recognition of the contribution she makes to the practice as well as a significant enriching of the studio leadership.

We wish Bill and his wife Kath (who retired on the same day as him) a very happy retirement and look forward to Jenny’s continued contribution to life at NVB.

April 5, 2024

NVB’s winning entry in the Architect of the Year Award is featured in the first of Building Design’s Past Winner Deep Dive Series.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5X1E77OJ51/?img_index=2

You can also read about one of our winning projects for Haberdashers’ Boys’ School in two articles published in Building Design here:

https://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/nvb-architects-completes-major-expansion-for-haberdashers-boys-school/5128090.article

and here, where we discuss what goes into making a truly great classroom environment

https://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/what-made-this-project-haberdashers-boys-school-by-nvb-architects/5128654.article

February 5, 2024

What to do when your new server is being switched over? Learn Fai Chun to celebrate the Lunar New Year, of course! Thanks Annie, Juliette, Kevin and Jeff for the lessons. Combined with a sharing lunch on Monday, it’s been a highly sociable week at NVB.