About

noby architects is made up of Nellie O'Keeffe and Brent Yttrup. 

Partners in life and business, Nellie and Brent’s architecture practice has become the one stable creative ‘vehicle’ in their lives.

With 2 active boys, it became apparent early on in their parenthood that both working in ‘Corporate jobs’ wasn’t going to work. But who pursues a career and who keeps our passion for beautiful, functional architecture and a love for fine detailing and materials burning strong…why not take it in turns?

Whilst this rotating career path caused some concern with Brent and Nellie to start with and how it would be perceived in the industry and with potential Clients, they found the lessons from both sides actually complimented and assist each other during the different phases.

The flow from sole practitioner to working in or managing large teams keeps things fresh and allows perspectives from the big corporate world and finely detailed world of bespoke architecture to cross-pollinate and thrive.

THINGS THAT DRIVE US!

Thoroughly understanding a Client’s way of life and how they live is of crucial importance to us.

We delve into the ‘why’ when a Client comes to us with a preconceived solution and love their response when we solve the problem in a different, better, more functional and beautiful way. “I would have never thought of that” is a common exclamation at our meetings, usually followed by: “That is amazing!” Many years of experience and many projects allows us to think outside the square, or more that we know the boundaries of “the square” is further out than many Client’s perceive.

Client satisfaction rather than awards and industry recognition is what we find most rewarding.

We don’t have pre-conceived ideas of style or force our ideas down Client’s throats, but analyse the site, settings and brief (Client’s wants and needs) to come up with new and innovative solutions that we then explain the reason behind as well as the benefits of.

Functionality of a house can mean so much to a person’s life as can having the best looking, or most energy efficient house in the street. We also understand that a manageable mortgage can also have a drastic impact on the lifestyle of that household,. How Client’s weigh these aspects up is often conflicting and is something we manage through the explanations of options and the plusses and minuses of those options.

Sustainability is paramount in all our projects, with building orientation and the passive solar design performance of the building often creating the actual forms of the house. Sunlit houses are lovely places to be in winter as properly shaded houses are on a hot summers day.

We are obsessed with assembly, build-ability and how forms and materials interface to ensure a great build.

Our drawings are often commented on as being the clearest many Builders have seen. We pride ourselves on creating drawing sets that explain the building in the most concise way.

Working closely with Builders means we often have them involved early in the process. We respect trades and know that our combined knowledge and skill will result in a better project.