Director-led residential design in Guisborough, from practical changes to existing homes through to carefully tested development opportunities.
From the first idea to planning and technical drawings, choose the support your project needs. Each stage has a clear scope and fee.
More useful space, better daylight and a clearer relationship with the garden.
Explore this service 02Roof-space feasibility, stair layouts and technical design for a more capable home.
Explore this service 03Site-led design and early feasibility for replacement homes and small developments.
Explore this service 04A proportionate planning route supported by clear drawings and local context.
Explore this service 05Coordinated technical drawings that carry the approved design into detail.
Explore this service 06Early appraisal of access, constraints, capacity and likely consultant input.
Explore this service 07Planning-led layouts for HMOs, flat conversions and other residential changes of use.
Explore this serviceSelected projects and design studies from the practice. Explore the brief, design and thinking behind each proposal.
A brick rear extension in Stokesley with a pitched tiled roof, glazed gable and garden-facing doors. The design combines traditional materials with generous daylight and a direct connection to the patio and garden.
A sensitive yet bold reinvention of a Victorian stone villa. A single-storey rear extension in charred timber cladding creates a deliberate counterpoint to the original sandstone façade — dark against light, new against old. Full-height glazing and folding doors open the extended living space entirely to the garden, while a crisp stone terrace and lush planted borders mediate between architecture and landscape. Heritage preserved, contemporary life enabled. A quiet confidence in the dialogue between past and present.
A sensitive transformation of a traditional stone home, introducing a sleek contemporary rear extension with expansive glazing and strong indoor–outdoor connections.
Read clients’ own accounts of working with Hepburn Architects.
Guisborough sits between an established market-town fabric and a strong landscape setting. Properties vary from older stone and brick buildings to twentieth-century estates and detached homes. We respond to the individual street, plot and outlook instead of relying on a single idea of local style.
Extensions often need to solve several problems together: a constrained kitchen, poor connection to the garden, limited storage and rooms that no longer suit family life. We test those needs as one layout exercise, coordinating external massing and neighbour relationships as the interior plan develops.
New homes and conversions require a clear account of context and capacity. We consider the approach to the site, landscape structure, parking, amenity and servicing, as well as the architectural character. Where specialist ecology, heritage or drainage evidence may be needed, it is better identified before the application programme is fixed.
We establish the brief, site conditions and likely approval route before fixing the design. Once the spatial approach is agreed, the work can progress into coordinated information for planning, structural input and Building Regulations without treating those stages as separate design exercises.
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is normally the local planning authority for Guisborough. Depending on the property and its precise location, heritage assets, landscape setting, trees, ecology or neighbouring amenity may affect the submission. The North York Moors National Park boundary lies nearby, and sites within it are determined by the National Park Authority.
Planning and Building Regulations are separate approval systems. We can prepare the architectural information for both, but every decision remains with the relevant authority or approved inspector.
Each commission is scoped around the decisions the client needs to make. Later stages are not assumed before the earlier evidence is understood.
We discuss the property, priorities, budget and programme, then identify the surveys and early checks needed.
Options are tested in plan and three dimensions before the agreed proposal is prepared for the appropriate approval route.
The approved design is developed with construction details and coordinated consultant information for Building Control and pricing.
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council handles most Guisborough applications. A site inside the North York Moors National Park would fall to the National Park Authority.
Potentially. The appropriate response depends on the existing house and context. A contemporary addition still needs convincing scale, materials, detail and neighbour relationships.
Yes. We can develop an approved design into coordinated technical information for Building Control and construction, working with structural engineers and other specialists where their input is required.
Tell David about your property in Guisborough, what you want to change and what matters most. We will help you identify a useful first step.
North East studio · Acklam Hall, Middlesbrough
Site visits and meetings by arrangement.