About Nicole Lane — Architectural Designer Based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Where It Started

When I was young, I used to spend hours drawing floor plans. Not just the rooms and the walls — I’d draw the people who lived there too. I’d create entire narratives around the spaces: the family, their routines, the moments that would play out in each room. I’d design hotels and imagine the guests moving through them. I’d sketch homes and think about the lives being lived inside them.

What fascinated me wasn’t the building itself — it was the relationship between a space and the people who inhabited it. How a room could feel generous or cramped. How light moved through a home at different times of day. How a small change in layout could completely transform how a family used their house.

That interest never went away. As I got older it developed into a fascination with how spaces connect and flow — and how they can be transformed through clever spatial planning, and the considered use of colour and texture. It’s still what drives me today, whether I’m working on a kitchen extension in Suffolk or a 300-home masterplan.

The Experience Behind the Studio

I trained formally in architecture, graduating with a BSc (Hons) and an MArch before completing the ADPPA — a qualification that reflects end-to-end professional development across design, planning, and project delivery.

Over the following 15 years I worked across both large corporate housebuilder PLCs and privately owned development companies — leading design teams, driving outline and reserved matters applications through planning, coordinating multi-disciplinary consultant teams, and helping deliver hundreds of homes across multiple UK schemes.

Alongside that, I took on individual residential projects — extensions, refurbishments, new builds — working directly with homeowners throughout. Not as a side interest, but because that work connects me to something the corporate world sometimes loses sight of: the fact that behind every planning application is a real family, a real home, and a project that matters deeply to the people commissioning it.

The result is a background that sits across both worlds — and a studio built to serve both, without compromising on either.

How I Work

Every project — whether it’s a single storey extension or a reserved matters application for a 200-home development — is handled directly by me. You won’t be passed to a junior member of staff or find yourself dealing with someone who doesn’t know your project. I am the studio, and I take that responsibility seriously.

I work in a way that I’d want to experience as a client: clearly, honestly, and without unnecessary jargon. I’ll tell you what I think — including when I think something won’t work, or when there’s a better way to approach a problem. Good design requires honesty, and I’d rather have a direct conversation early than a difficult one later.

I’m based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and work with clients across the UK — homeowners across Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, and Norfolk, and developer and housebuilder clients nationwide.

Let’s Work Together

If you’ve read this far, I hope you have a sense of who I am and how I work. I started this studio because I genuinely love what I do — and because I believe the best results come when a designer is personally invested in a project, not just technically capable of delivering it.

Whether you’re a homeowner thinking about extending your home, or a developer looking for experienced design resource — I’d love to have a conversation about your project. No obligation, no jargon. Just an honest discussion about what’s possible and whether I’m the right person to help.

Qualifications & Background

Nicole Lane BSc (Hons), MArch, ADPPA

Architectural Designer · Founded Nicole Lane Architectural Design Studio 2024