RKA

This is a long reviews, because we are so impressed with Richard and the RKA team. In short, we wouldnt hesitate to recommend them - we already have to a number of friends! For the longer answer, see below. I found RKA via Houzz professional listings. The photos of a recently renovated house nearby that Id been admiring caught my eye. Richard contacted me promptly and we immediately struck up a great rapport. We were looking to extend our 1970s bungalow to create another living space and two further bedrooms for visitors. We have loved having Richard on board as we try to design this as a contemporary family home. At the start of the design process Friday evenings became something to look forward to (even more) as Richard would regularly share updated and revised ideas at this time to let us get excited about and mull over during the weekend. Richard brought so many different, distinctive and enticing ideas to the table, soaking up our hairbrain ideas and distilling them into a number of workable solutions. Having listened carefully to our brief from the outset, he has responded to our comments throughout and challenged us to push ourselves to think differently too. We thoroughly enjoyed the design process and have now settled on a design for a beautifully elegant and striking home. Without Richard on our side we would never have come up with anything as incredible as we have. There have been bumps and rethinks along the way, but weve always felt very supported by all the team at RKA. When we needed to downscale, due to budget restrictions, the team responded so positively, and quickly redesigned a more affordable scheme whilst still keeping the essence of the design wed fallen in love with. This supportive and proactive approach certainly helped me to enjoy the process again after feeling quite down-heartened. We are currently going through planning, which is being put to the local council planning committee. Again, the RKA team have gone above and beyond to liaise with the planning officer and respond quickly and efficiently to deal with objections and suggestions. Everything has been addressed promptly due to the very tight schedule set by the council deadlines. Throughout the process so far the RKA team have consistently produced professional, clear and stylish presentations to showcase their ideas, kept to every deadline, been flexible to our needs and kept us on track when things got tricky. They have recommended local professionals to support our project, who have all been assists to the process. The next steps include preparing a building warrant and tender package, along with further work to design our interiors. The inclusion in their design package of their partner Thistle and Wild was an added bonus and we are looking forward to working with Rebecca to get inspiration for our family home. We definitely feel that Richard has taken our project to heart and shares our passion in getting the right design for us. We appreciate all his time, ideas and energy and I would not hesitate to recommend RKA and, in fact, I already have a number of times to friends.
Apr 9th, 2022

Positive: Professionalism, Responsiveness, Value
Apr 6th, 2022

We've had a fantastic experience with Richard, he's listened closely to what we wanted and proposed lots of great options. He's been great at advising on all sort of details and is very responsive when we have a querry. Would highly recommend choosing RKA as an architect!
Feb 18th, 2022

Richard, Rebecca and the RKA team have been brilliant in helping us with the complete renovation of our listed house in Fife. They are very professional, expertly guiding us through the complexities of the planning and design process, responsive and very organised. They have great aesthetic sense, suggesting ideas we would never have thought of but also responding to our preferences. Most importantly they are great to deal with - they really care about the job and they make a process that could be stressful fun and stimulating.
Dec 17th, 2021

Taking a recommendation from friends, we contacted Richard Keating and the RKA team to extend and reconfigure our house in St. Andrews. We found Richard and all the RKA team very professional and knowledgeable but also really approachable. Richard showed us previous examples of his work and we also had a site visit to a completed project before we committed which really gave us a feel for the flair and vision RKA bring to a project. We were on! Richard was really responsive to our brief, asked us lots of questions and balanced the practical and budgetary considerations of the project with beautiful design and bespoke solutions for us- especially in the kitchen and dining room extension where we wanted some special and unique architectural touches. RKA have made the process of home extension and renovation exciting, enjoyable and lots of fun- when Richard presented initial design ideas for our house, there were genuine squeals of delight! We were blown away by his designs! RKA then continued to work with us, offering guidance and expertise where necessary, to hone the project to our taste and specifications and are they now supporting the process through the planning and building stages. The RKA team have always been particularly prompt in communication which is really useful at this stage. We are also enjoying the interior design service they offer and always look forward to our Friday night updates which have a real sense of excitement around them. We are a small project for RKA but believe we have been offered as much of the enthusiasm and interest as the larger projects they also undertake. Highly recommend.
Sep 18th, 2021