Architects in Kingston
Kingston has been a town worth building well in since Saxon kings were crowned here, and that same seriousness shows up today in everything from the historic centre to the large detached houses around Coombe. Design United Studio, led by director Jürgen Kuppers, designs across that whole range.
A Market Town With Genuinely Bigger Houses
Why a Kingston Project Often Means a Bigger Scale of Work
Coombe, and the areas toward Coombe Hill, have some of the largest detached houses we design for anywhere in South West London.
Projects here regularly go beyond a side return, basement excavations, multi-storey rear additions and full reworks of several rooms at once.
Jürgen's background in large-scale projects at Foster + Partners means that jump in scale doesn't change the level of care a design gets, it just changes what's realistically on the table.
Larger Plots Open Up Options a Terrace Never Would
With more garden and more distance from a neighbour's boundary, a wrap-around extension, a detached garden studio, or a full basement conversion all become genuinely realistic, options that simply aren't there on a standard terraced plot.
The engineering and planning process is still exacting, but the design brief gets to be more ambitious from the outset.
A Town Centre With Its Own Sense of History
Kingston's civic history runs deep, the Coronation Stone outside the Guildhall marks its role crowning Saxon kings, and that long identity still shapes how the historic centre is treated today.
For properties nearer the centre, that sensitivity matters even where a building isn't formally listed. Kirana Laonipon, our Part II architectural assistant, factors this into the drawings from the start rather than adjusting for it after the fact.
Working With the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames
Kingston's planning team is a separate authority from every other council we work with across South West London, with its own local plan and validation requirements. We prepare applications to match what Kingston specifically expects, rather than assuming a checklist that works in one borough will work here too.
Interior Design That Matches the Scale of a Larger Kingston Home
A larger Kingston house often needs an interior scheme covering several rooms, or an entire floor, rather than a single kitchen-diner reconfiguration. We treat that as one coherent project, sightlines, material choices and lighting considered together across the whole space, rather than room by room.
A Studio Comfortable With Scale
The Same Two People, Whatever the Scale of the Project
Design United Studio is led by director Jürgen Kuppers, a RIBA and ARB registered architect with a background in large-scale projects at Foster + Partners, working alongside Part II Architectural Assistant Kirana Laonipon.
Kingston is one of eighteen areas we cover as part of our wider South West London architects practice.
Big-Practice Experience, Small-Studio Attention
Our Track Record
2
Hands-On Team
100+
Projects
99%
Planning Approval Success Rate
10+
Years in Practice
What Our Clients Say
"Our house near Coombe Hill is bigger than most of what an architect usually deals with, and it didn't faze them at all."
"We ended up doing a basement alongside the rear extension, which felt ambitious until they broke down exactly how the two would actually work together."
"The interior design covered nearly the whole ground floor, not just the kitchen, and it still feels like one coherent scheme rather than a series of separate rooms."
GEORGINA L.
RACHEL O.
GREGG L.
Straight answers before you call
Frequently asked questions
Common questions from homeowners in Kingston about larger properties, planning and how we work.
