HEM Architects Ltd

We are very glad we used paul testa architecture on our retrofit project. we chose them because sustainability is at the core of what they do. paul understood – and shares - our aims: to reduce carbon emissions and reliance on fossil fuels, to make our house as energy-efficient as possible and ‘fit for 2050’. he walks the talk. our confidence was justified! he promised us a warm and comfortable home with reduced energy bills, and that is what we now have! his calm, and his professional and personal experience of builds, was enormously reassuring at our lowest ebbs. he works collaboratively: it was never just ‘lowest tender gets the job’, so we always felt that whatever was agreed with the builders was fair to all of us.

From our very first meeting with paul and then claire, to our perfectly finished home, we have felt nothing but totally supported and guided through this once in a lifetime experience. choosing our contractor was a big decision and with paul and claire’s guidance we found a team that would prove to be second to none-sean, ryan and jonathan (jordan and somerfield joinery). even in the difficult times of brexit and covid nothing was compromised on and everyone went above and beyond to make sure things ran as smoothly as possible and finished to the highest possible standard. we now have our amazing new home that not only looks amazing it is very energy efficient too!! many many thanks to everyone alison and jonathan

We had the pleasure of working with alan to design and project manage the renovation of our new retail premises. from the first meeting to the final sign off he was extremely professional, thorough and easy to work with. he clearly communicated the expected output of each stage of the process which made the experience stress free. he listened carefully to our requirements and came up with innovative solutions to enhance our project, while working collaboratively with our other partners to ensure we got the best result. alan produced some really imaginative designs all under our tight budget constraints. the final results really surpassed our expectations, highly recommended!

Working with hem has been a pleasure. excellent at what they do and really nice people. although it can be tempting to save on the design or go for a cheaper alternative, i have learnt that good design is well worth it and results in a superior end product.

With a difficult planning process for a site in 'countryside', pta designed an innovative house exactly as requested - despite some of the quirkiness we required! after initial rejection, the appeal was successful and it was a pity we couldn't find a builder to commit to a price and build it! jess at pta was very helpful throughout.