The practice
Fell & Marlow started in 2011 with one commission, a rear extension in Walkley, and a shared conviction that most domestic architecture is let down not by the design but by the parts nobody explains.
We do extensions, retrofit and small commercial work, almost all of it within forty minutes of the studio — because Stage 5 means being on site, and a practice that cannot get to site by half past eight is not administering a contract, it is emailing about one.
We stay at five people deliberately. It is the size at which one of the two people whose names are on the door is on every project, which is what most clients assume they are buying and often are not. It also means we turn work down, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend to infinite capacity.
Selected projects
Value, area, consent, stages, contractor, date. Every practice keeps this sheet; almost none of them shows it, which means a prospective client cannot tell whether the beautiful photograph cost £40,000 or £400,000.
Sheffield S6 · rear extension and fabric retrofit
A two-up two-down opened at the back, party wall insulated, solid walls lined internally. The clients had been quoted for a conservatory. We talked them out of it and into 42 m² that holds its heat, for about the same money.
Sheffield S7 · whole-house retrofit, conservation area
A late-Victorian villa taken back to brick internally and rebuilt to an EnerPhit-informed standard. Airtightness tested at 1.6 ach@50Pa. That is a good result and it is not certified Passivhaus, which we say because the distinction matters and is routinely blurred.
Sheffield S1 · workshop to studios, change of use
A cutlery works divided into eleven studios and a shared yard, with a new stair core and as little done to the stone as we could get away with. Our own studio is on the top floor, which concentrated the mind on the detailing.
Register
Sheffield housing is red brick and the works buildings are gritstone, so that is what we detail and that is what our subcontractors are good at. We are not a practice that will hand you a white rendered box.
People
Both registration numbers are below. They are searchable on the ARB register, and we would rather you looked us up than took our word for it.
Director · ARB 078412 · RIBA
Part III at Sheffield in 2006, then eight years on housing at a Leeds practice before starting this one. Runs the domestic work, does the measured surveys herself, and is the reason the fee page exists in the form it does.
Director · ARB 081337 · Principal Designer
Came to architecture from six years in construction, which shows in the technical drawings. Takes the Principal Designer role under CDM 2015 on our projects, handles the commercial work, and is the one on site at half past eight.
In progress
"They sent the professional indemnity certificate with the fee proposal without being asked. Nobody else we spoke to mentioned insurance at all."
First conversation
Or we will come to you. The first hour costs nothing either way.
