This home was transformed with a modern extension with large bi-fold doors, open-plan kitchen and living areas with connections to the garden, creating bright spaces that balance functionality with family comfort.
Kennet Design is an architectural practice serving Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. We bring together creative design, planning expertise, and technical precision to deliver projects that are both thoughtful and enduring.
If you’re looking for architects in Oxford, you’ve probably already looked at a few practices. Some will be RIBA chartered. Some will have beautiful websites. What’s harder to find out — until you’re halfway through a project — is whether they’ll still be answering the phone when something goes wrong on site.
We’re Kennet Design, an architectural design practice that has been working across Oxford and Oxfordshire since 2010. We’ve extended Edwardian townhouses in central Oxford, converted loft spaces above listed buildings, and guided clients through South Oxfordshire’s planning environment when other designers had already tried and failed. One client came to us after a refusal they hadn’t seen coming. Another came because their previous designer had disappeared after planning was granted, leaving them to manage a builder alone with drawings that didn’t cover half of what needed to be built.
We’re not the right fit for every project. But if you want someone who will handle the whole thing — planning, drawings, contractor procurement, site visits — and who knows Oxford and Oxfordshire well enough to tell you what’s realistic before you spend money finding out the hard way, that’s exactly what we do.
This home was transformed with a modern extension with large bi-fold doors, open-plan kitchen and living areas with connections to the garden, creating bright spaces that balance functionality with family comfort.
An Edwardian townhouse in central Oxford was renovated and extended with a loft conversion, modern interiors, and a bespoke garden office, blending period character with contemporary living.
This Newbury home was extended with a contemporary brick addition featuring full-width glazing, bi-fold doors, and open-plan interiors that flow seamlessly into the landscaped garden.
A family asked us to design a three-storey home. We replaced the original bungalow with a vertically organised home that rises through three overlooking long views to the sea.
Part of a multi-plot Surrey development, this four-storey home takes advantage of a sloping site with a lower-ground floor opening onto the garden, a wide terrace above, and expansive glazing throughout.
A sensitive extension and renovation in Wiltshire: blending traditional brick with a contemporary timber-clad addition to create a farmhouse that feels both timeless and modern.
Part of a multi-plot Surrey development, this four-storey home takes advantage of a sloping site with a lower-ground floor opening onto the garden, a wide terrace above, and expansive glazing throughout.
This Georgian-style self-build home in Marlborough combines elegant symmetry and traditional red brickwork with modern open-plan living, bespoke finishes, and a garden-facing extension that creates luxury and light.
Part of a multi-plot Surrey development, this four-storey home takes advantage of a sloping site with a lower-ground floor opening onto the garden, a wide terrace above, and expansive glazing throughout.
Part of a multi-plot Surrey development, this four-storey home takes advantage of a sloping site with a lower-ground floor opening onto the garden, a wide terrace above, and expansive glazing throughout.
Part of a multi-plot Surrey development, this four-storey home takes advantage of a sloping site with a lower-ground floor opening onto the garden, a wide terrace above, and expansive glazing throughout.
This home was transformed with a modern extension with large bi-fold doors, open-plan kitchen and living areas with connections to the garden, creating bright spaces that balance functionality with family comfort.
An Edwardian townhouse in central Oxford was renovated and extended with a loft conversion, modern interiors, and a bespoke garden office, blending period character with contemporary living.
This 1930s home in Oxford was extended and remodelled with a bold contemporary design, featuring an open-plan kitchen and living space, vibrant interiors, and a landscaped garden that connects with the house.
This Newbury home was extended with a contemporary brick addition featuring full-width glazing, bi-fold doors, and open-plan interiors that flow seamlessly into the landscaped garden.
A sensitive extension and renovation in Wiltshire: blending traditional brick with a contemporary timber-clad addition to create a farmhouse that feels both timeless and modern.
A sensitive extension and renovation in Wiltshire: blending traditional brick with a contemporary timber-clad addition to create a farmhouse that feels both timeless and modern.
A dated family home reimagined with a full-width rear extension, expansive glazing and a raised deck, opening the house to the garden and creating a light-filled, contemporary living space.
A sensitive extension and renovation in Wiltshire: blending traditional brick with a contemporary timber-clad addition to create a farmhouse that feels both timeless and modern.
This 1930s home in Oxford was extended and remodelled with a bold contemporary design, featuring an open-plan kitchen and living space, vibrant interiors, and a landscaped garden that connects with the house.
In Newbury, we transformed a 1930s detached house with a bold extension and loft conversion. The result? A light-filled living space and a tranquil loft retreat, balancing original character with a modern sense of openness.
Part of a multi-plot Surrey development, this four-storey home takes advantage of a sloping site with a lower-ground floor opening onto the garden, a wide terrace above, and expansive glazing throughout.
This Newbury home was extended with a contemporary brick addition featuring full-width glazing, bi-fold doors, and open-plan interiors that flow seamlessly into the landscaped garden.
A dated family home reimagined with a full-width rear extension, expansive glazing and a raised deck, opening the house to the garden and creating a light-filled, contemporary living space.
This 1930s home in Oxford was extended and remodelled with a bold contemporary design, featuring an open-plan kitchen and living space, vibrant interiors, and a landscaped garden that connects with the house.
This Newbury home was extended with a contemporary brick addition featuring full-width glazing, bi-fold doors, and open-plan interiors that flow seamlessly into the landscaped garden.
We’ve been consistently recognised for outstanding client service. We are proud recipients of multiple Best of Houzz Service awards (2017, 2020, 2022, 2024), reflecting the trust and positive experiences of our clients across the South of England.
20+ years In the Industry • 50+ Projects Completed
When people come to us looking for architects in Oxford, they often assume the process ends at planning. It doesn’t — or it shouldn’t. We work end to end: from the first conversation about what you want to build, through planning, detailed drawings, building regulations, contractor procurement and site visits, to the day building control signs off. One point of contact throughout. No handoffs. No disappearing after the permission comes through.
A lot of practices working as architects in Oxford hand a project off once planning is granted. We don’t. We’ve seen too many times what happens when they do — the small decisions that get made on site without anyone qualified to make them, the details that get value-engineered out because nobody was watching, the client who ends up with something that looks almost like what they wanted.
The homes we work on across Oxford and Oxfordshire are, almost without exception, buildings worth caring about. Your investment deserves a design that honours that — something that feels considered, that sits naturally in its setting, and that will still look right in twenty years.
That matters most with heritage buildings. A listed property or a home in a conservation area can lose significant value if an extension or alteration feels forced — if the materials jar, if the proportions are wrong, if the new work draws attention to itself rather than belonging. We’ve spent over a decade working with exactly these buildings across Oxford and Oxfordshire, and we understand what makes them work architecturally as well as what the planning authorities will and won’t accept.
When people come to us looking for architects in Oxford, this is often the underlying concern — not just whether the project will get through planning, but whether the finished building will be something they’re proud of. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to on every project.
Over the years, I’ve been called in at every stage of a project — sometimes at the beginning, often after something has gone wrong. A planning refusal that “no one expected.” A builder relationship that has turned sour. A budget that drifted so gradually the owners only realised when it was too late.
One client told me, “We thought we were saving money.” By the end of the build, she had spent more correcting early decisions than she would have spent appointing the right team from the outset. Nothing dramatic — just small gaps in judgement that compounded.
That is what shaped how I practise. Architecture, in my view, is not about chasing trends or producing images for brochures. It is about protecting value — financial value, architectural integrity, and the long-term satisfaction of living in a well-resolved space. Much of that work happens before construction begins: reading planning policy carefully, identifying risk early, insisting on clarity in drawings, and structuring contracts so the client is protected when pressure inevitably arises.
Our director Carl is based in Childrey, in the Vale of White Horse, which puts us squarely in the heart of the area most people searching for architects in Oxford are actually building in. We work across Oxford city and the surrounding county — we’ve completed projects in Abingdon, Witney and Wantage, and across the wider South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse planning areas that anyone building here will need to navigate.
Beyond Oxfordshire, Kennet Design works across Berkshire, Wiltshire, Surrey and the south of England. Our main office is in Newbury, and the combination of bases means we know the planning environments, the local authorities and the building contractors across a broad stretch of the south — which makes a practical difference when it comes to recommending the right people for your project.
If you’re looking for architects in Oxford or anywhere across Oxfordshire, we’re local, we’re experienced here, and we’re ready to talk.
We’ve been rated 5-stars across the board–including all 38 Google, Houzz and Facebook reviews!
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