about us
Allister Godfrey Architects is a RIBA Chartered Practice founded by Allister Godfrey in 2005, based in Wantage, Oxfordshire, and working with clients across Oxfordshire and England. Allister is an RIBA Chartered Architect with 26 years of post-qualification experience. He leads the practice as founding director.
We specialise in bespoke residential design — new houses, extensions, and alterations to existing homes, including listed buildings and sensitive rural conservation settings.
How we work
Our approach is contextual and place-sensitive: we start with the site, its landscape, its neighbours, and its planning context, rather than applying a house style. Two of our recent projects illustrate this range — a new contemporary dwelling on a sensitive brook-side site in Oxfordshire (550m², built with a fabric-first passive standard with air source heat pump, PV slates, MVHR and rainwater harvesting), and sympathetic refurbishments of a Listed, Grade II Vicarage. Each project responds to its own site and brief rather than a repeated formula.
We design to cost from the outset. Every scheme is developed against a realistic construction budget from the earliest sketch stage, not adjusted to fit one later. That means when a project reaches planning approval, it is already buildable within budget — our clients rarely go through rounds of value engineering, cost-cutting, or re-design after planning to make a scheme affordable. The design you get consent for is the design you build.
We have an established track record obtaining planning permission for our clients, including in conservation areas and for listed buildings, ably supported by a trusted network of external consultants covering structural engineering, heritage advice, planning legislation, and sustainability.
Why we’ve stayed small
We have deliberately kept the practice small so that Allister remains directly involved in every project, from first sketch through to completion on site. Much of our work comes through recommendation and repeat clients, which we take as a sign that the relationship-first way we work — listening carefully to a client’s brief and being honest about budget and buildability from day one — is the right one.
“Working on our extension with Allister was a pleasure from start to finish and we cannot recommend him highly enough. He listened to what we wanted and also came up with some much better ideas which we would never have thought of ourselves.”
In summary
- Practice: Allister Godfrey Architects, RIBA Chartered Practice, founded 2005
- Principal: Allister Godfrey, RIBA Chartered Architect, 26 years’ post-qualification experience
- Location: Wantage, Oxfordshire
- Coverage: Oxfordshire, Berkshire & The Cotswolds
- Specialism: Bespoke residential design — new build homes, self-build homes, extensions, alterations, refurbishments and Listed buildings
- Approach: Contextual, place-sensitive design, budget-disciplined from the outset — schemes are buildable immediately after planning without value engineering