We don’t design houses.
Together, we create homes.

About

Brightman Clarke Architects is a small team of award-winning architects. We are passionate about well-designed and contemporary homes. We work regionally throughout Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire from our Sheffield office in the village of Dore.

Founded in 2016 by Christopher Brightman and Jonathan Clarke, the practice has steadily expanded, and our reputation for delivering a high-quality design service has grown.

We are a close knit team of highly skilled and dedicated architects and designers. As a practice, we are large enough to tackle any residential project yet purposefully small enough so that we can provide you with our undivided attention, offering you a highly bespoke personal service. 

As a team, our range of skills and experience complement each other. So you can be confident that you will always have the right person on hand to guide and assist you through each stage of your project.

As our reputation has grown, so too has our standing within the construction sector. We are the preferred architects for several consultants and builders in the region, which is an excellent testimony to the quality of our technical expertise, drawings and documentation you can expect us to deliver.

What drives us is a belief that a well-designed home can truly enhance and transform the quality of family life. We prioritise getting to know you and seeking to understand your needs and aspirations.

We promise to work collaboratively with you. We never forget this is your home, not ours. We don't dictate an architectural style; we are here to guide, advise and support you throughout the project.

Christopher Brightman - Director, Architect

Jonathan Clarke - Director, Architectural Technologist

Our motivations for starting an architectural practice together.

Our vision. To create a design-oriented architectural practice where we could combine our years of education and post-qualification experience together, offering clients a genuinely bespoke design service with an authentic open and collaborative working culture.

Having worked in large commercial architectural practices for several years, we both started to feel disconnected from clients.

We believe, at its best, good architecture stems from a truly collaborative design process. An architect has to learn about their client, their individual needs, aspirations, and dreams; then work with them, creatively finding solutions to their problems and delivering the answers professionally.

Working for corporate clients like Ikea, Sainsbury's and Virgin Active. We were delivering a high level of professional service. But, we craved one to one connections with genuine invested individuals who cared about the quality of design.

So what first started as freelance work for family and friends soon led to larger commissions and us both, each setting up individually on our own, but when needed, we assisted each other on projects. The next big step was sharing rented office space.

Finally, in 2016 we formally created a partnership and merged into one practice, Brightman Clarke Architects.

After working for ourselves for a while - one of the biggest surprises we learnt was not all house designers seem to put the client's needs and aspirations at the centre of their design process. You would sometimes be forgiven for thinking that it was even their own home.

“We want to stay small to stay personal”

Time and again, new clients would tell us similar stories of why they chose to appoint us. Unlike some other architects or designers they had met, from our first meeting, we seemed keener to learn and take time to understand what they wanted to achieve; in short, we listened first and only then advised.

This insight surprised us; after all, we created our practice to get closer to clients; work together with them, and not exclude them from our design process.

How we work; what you can expect

As architects and designers, we confess we conform to some stereotypes, like probably wearing a little too much black. But, we like to shatter others:

We will put you at the centre of our design process and listen to your needs and aspirations.

What drives us is a belief that a well-designed home can really enhance and transform the quality of family life.

Working collaboratively with our clients, we help them realise the true potential of their property and help turn it from just a house into a real family home.

A skilled, motivated and knowledgeable team member is key to serving our clients. We believe in self-development and lifelong learning.

We offer in-house apprenticeships and online training, regularly turn away from our computers, and have inspiration presentations and open project reviews together. Everyone contributes; all thoughts and ideas are encouraged and welcome.

We also embrace the idea of seeking a little discomfort, stepping outside our comfort zones, trying new things, experimenting, and actively applying our new knowledge and skills.

Building trusted and friendly working relationships have been critical to our success. Not just within the team but with our clients too. Thankfully, we've made lasting connections with many of our clients, which continue long after the builders have left.

We've seen new babies brought home, children leave for university, and retirement parties celebrated. All within the homes we've helped to create.

We all like awards - but nothing beats having a coffee with a client and seeing them relaxing in their new home; hearing them say, "I love this space". One day - maybe we will share that coffee with you?