This is
Our Story...

We are proud of our story. Over the past twenty years Snug has achieved a lot. We love what we do and are satisfied with what we have achieved on behalf of our clients. Critically, we are still hungry to press on...

Snug started small, believing that those who are faithful in the small things will go on to do greater things. This has proved to be the case.

The journey so far has been a great adventure and we love the process of growing a successful business, almost as much as we love designing! For us success is being able to work in accordance with our values every day. This principles-based approach to our work has served us well and we place a high value on integrity.

Snug’s story began with a small but courageous property development called 'Shechem'. Snug’s founding director, Paul Bulkeley, had always been entrepreneurial and, unable to get on the housing ladder, determined to build his own house. Instead of building one, he got planning permission for a pair of highly original one-bedroom town houses on a 10m x 10m postage stamp of a site. It was this entrepreneurial spirit that launched Snug and it remains one of our defining characteristics.

Shechem was the first of an exclusive collection of high-quality infill housing schemes that we delivered on complex sites in Winchester and demonstrated our ability to realise potential - unlocking challenging sites and seeing opportunity where others see constraints.

This is why we are called Snug; our work fits people and place snugly, whatever the scale. Shechem was the first Snug project and reveals much of our design ethos. It was a great start.

Paul founded Snug in 2003, partway through the construction of Shechem and one year after qualifying as an architect. There was still a lot to learn, and that necessitated humble beginnings.

While building Shechem, Paul and his then builder, Ben Chainey, decided to do a few more developments together. It was a great way to learn the business and threw them both in at the deep end. They delivered several of their own property developments and sold their last unit in July 2007. This turned out to be good timing, being only a few weeks before the start of the credit crunch. They determined to focus on the now fast-growing architecture business, focusing primarily on solving the housing crisis. This remains a key priority for the business.

In 2009, Ben left the family construction company and joined Snug Architects full-time, focusing fully on his role developing the technical disciplines of the practice. After only a few years, Paul had built his own home, and they had, together, completed several small property developments. It had given them a great grounding in the pragmatic realities of the development industry and real empathy for their clients.

Like many young architects, establishing their practice, Paul taught architecture part time. Unlike most, Paul led on the creation of the first Civil Engineering and Architecture M.Eng at the University of Southampton. This was a ground-breaking course that provided an academic pathway into both disciplines. Amongst the first cohort of graduates was Mike Worthington. He came to work for us as a graduate and, some ten years later, became Snug’s third director, moving on in 2023 to set up on his own. This synthesis between architecture and engineering continues to infuse our approach to design.

Every architect loves to build a one-off house and our first one proved to be significant. What became known as the Stealth House was a pioneering and unique piece of contextual design that established one of our core design principles, what we call ‘shrink wrapped function’. We are forever grateful to our clients for putting their full trust in us. It paid off, and some ten years after the house was finished, we were delighted to hear them say that they still loved it and wouldn’t change a thing. Designing bespoke private homes remains a passion of ours.

The next big moment was Snug’s first commercial housing development. It was a scheme called Parkwood, on behalf of Bargate Homes. It arguably remains the most contemporary housing scheme in Winchester. It challenged more conservative housing models and established our credentials as innovative architects who are willing to challenge conventional thinking and bring a fresh approach to development. This led to other developments with Bargate, including two more traditional schemes that explored a modern Hampshire vernacular and taught us to love where you live.

In 2016 we made the decision to leave Winchester and purchased our own office in Totton. It has been a great move for us, creating room to expand with great access to the South Coast. We now work on projects across the South of England.

Soon after moving we won two important projects. Ironically, the first was in Winchester. It was Winchester City Council’s largest social housing scheme at The Valley, Stanmore. The project has allowed us to develop innovative new housing typologies on a large scale and complex site using a 3D workflow.

The second was the Milford-on-Sea beach huts. This was won through collaboration and became a ground breaking piece of sustainable design through its innovative approach to inhabited infrastructure. The project has gone on to win a host of national and international awards, including a Civic Trust Award and a coveted Architecture Masterprize.

The project was won as a result of our new approach to collaboration, inspired by this image Paul created of the rhino and the bird. As a relatively small, dynamic and design led studio, we know that we are stronger in collaboration with others. It has proved to be a successful approach. In 2017 we worked collaboratively with JTP architects to deliver a public consultation and master planning process for the redevelopment of central Winchester, and we have gone on to work collaboratively with them on a number of large regeneration projects.

This was also the year that Snug was selected as one of only nine RIBA Role Model Practices. It was hugely satisfying to have not only our work, but also our approach to work, recognised by our professional institute. This has given us a voice, as well as increased opportunities for thought leadership within our industry and demonstrated how important it is to align value in all that we do. In 2017 we also supported the launch of BizMin, a global organisation committed to calling and equipping Christian entrepreneurs to do business as ministry. This is something we have continued to support and seek to put into practice ourselves.

One of the big growth areas in our industry has been Prior Approval office-to-residential conversions. It is an area that many design-led architects have sought to avoid, questioning what, if any, design opportunities office-to-residential conversion could offer. At Snug, we are committed to creating better places to live for everyone. That means we get involved in every part of the industry and seek to make it better. We were fortunate to work with the Ocea Group from their inception. They expanded fast, and in 2018, we together designed 2% of all Prior Approval conversions in the UK. It has taken us back to our entrepreneurial roots, but on a huge scale, repurposing tired buildings and bringing hundreds of genuinely affordable housing units to the market. We have developed a reputation for being both design-led and commercially savvy. We believe it is a powerful combination.

Finding innovative ways to make homes affordable is in our DNA, and today we are working across the housing sector, creating housing developments that are rethinking affordable housing provision. Increasingly we are involved in complex mixed use regeneration projects that create better places to live.

Although our core business has historically been housing, we also work with a range of charities, community groups and churches to deliver projects with a clear social purpose. Working directly with people of purpose inspires us, and we are passionate about supporting communities to express and achieve their dreams. In addition to our core services, we are also good at delivering engaging workshops and consultation events that help communities curate a collective vision and build consensus, enabling organisations to deliver more effectively on their social purpose. A highlight for us was Hope Street, a pioneering project for women in the justice system that has won a host of prestigious national awards, including the 2024 RIBA MacEwen Award.

Like most architects, we also aspire to work on nationally significant public buildings that align with our values. In 2017, we spotted the international design competition for The Wall of Answered Prayer, a national monument of hope to be located at the heart of the nation. As a practice that is actively based on Christian values, the project captured our imagination. To our delight, we were shortlisted down to the last five from 134 international entries and, after two years, we went on to win the competition. It is a huge privilege to be selected to design and deliver such a groundbreaking and nationally significant project. It marks the beginning of the next chapter in our story.

Snug has consistently grown from humble beginnings. Our DNA has been refined but remains largely unchanged. We are as committed as ever to our core values and remain a principles-based business.

We are our team. Today we are a talented and eclectic team of architects, technologists, project managers and principal designers. We are excited about the future and will continue to grow and develop as opportunity presents itself.

We hope you feel inspired to be a part of our story...