About Us
Built Narrative’s projects are unique; the culmination of our client’s needs, their budget, and the challenges and opportunities brought by the context of the building or site. We bring enthusiasm and creativity to the design process; taking pride in creating spaces people love, moulding places that knit together our urban environment, and repairing our built heritage.
Our founder, Ian David, has considerable experience working with Listed buildings and has worked to protect, restore and enhance the country's historic architecture. We believe that the refurbishment and extension of Listed buildings offer the opportunity to add to their ongoing and rich narratives, a responsibility we take seriously.
We specialise in the design and realisation of complex planning applications, achieving permissions where others have failed, and finding the successful juxtaposition of competing requirements to create beautiful, deliverable solutions - making the most of challenging sites. We’re intimately acquainted with building planning narratives that stakeholders and council officials can support.
We build professional teams and work collaboratively with them and our clients. We firmly believe the best designs emerge from listening and dialogue rather than a pre-defined architectural style.
Our quality of service sets us apart. We’re attentive and transparent and will always seek the best solutions for our clients. However, we’re also leaders and committed to driving projects to completion.
Our environment is under enormous pressure from the construction industry, and we advocate to minimise the creation of carbon emissions and design with this in mind. We are well placed in the construction process to make an oversized impact on reducing carbon emissions.
The practice was founded by our experienced director Ian David.
Ian David - ARB RIBA, Director
Ian brings a depth of architectural experience to the practice. He has previously worked in a variety of architectural disciplines and delivered projects at different scales; from new-build and house renovations to large multi-unit buildings to larger urban-scale projects for hundreds of homes.
Over the past twenty years, Ian has worked for established London architectural practices and has delivered several significant and challenging projects including:
9 St Mary Abbot’s Place, a high-end apartment building in central London (RIBA stage 3). The full renovation and basement extension of a grade II Listed townhouse and mews in Kensington (RIBA stage 6). A multi-use development in Reading town centre providing over 100,000 sqft of housing and office space and the adaption of three Listed buildings (RIBA stage 3). A miniature railway cafe in Essex (RIBA stage 3). The above projects were delivered while working with Rodic Davidson Architects.
Ian delivered a substantial and complex refurbishment of a Grade II Listed townhouse on Russell Square to create a new home for the Wiener Library and a series of large house refurbishments and extensions (RIBA stage 6). The above projects were delivered while working with Barbara Weiss Architects.
Ian delivered a series of high-quality bespoke new-build homes and refurbishments (Various RIBA stages including stage 6) while working for Powell Tuck Associates.
More recently with Harris Irwin Architects, Ian has delivered a series of significant planning permissions including, several large care homes in Bath, Chelmsford, Hextable, Brentwood and, what is probably the country’s largest later-living community village in Kent for up to 500 homes.