Early on in his career, Doug designed social housing which then evolved into designing one-off bespoke houses for private clients.
After traveling and working around the world, Doug returned home to Wales in 2001 and founded Hughes Architects. Having worked and been educated on both sides of the globe has taught him to design sustainable buildings that don’t just look good and feel great, they actually work as well.
Given such differing types of project made Doug realize very quickly that there is no such thing as standard. Each project has its own unique brief with its own unique appropriate solution driven by a unique site and more importantly, a unique client.
As our practice grew, Doug applied the same principles to all sorts of projects from community centres to hospitals. This carries on to this day. We are lucky at Hughes Architects that we enjoy a huge variety of projects that provide a stimulus for the imagination and challenge for our architects on a day by day basis.
Behind the work however is the same attention to customer care- we talk, we listen and we offer clear advice to ensure that all of our buildings are unique with the main aim being high-quality sustainable architecture with reduced running costs while getting the most out of the budget.
Doug firmly believes in reinvestment in the community. He is a Welsh Government Dynamo Role Model for business which is an initiative to encourage young people to become entrepreneurs. Doug is alsoa private sector advisor to the Economic Advisory Group of the Mid Wales Growth Deal.
Doug is the instigator of a local action group leading a team that has designed a vision for our area which has recently been used as best practice by the RIBA as to how architects can positively engage with their community.
Sustainability and reducing carbon footprint is at the core of what we do every day at Hughes Architects. Doug is a RIBA accredited Conservation Architect - one of only 176 of the 42,000 architects in the UK. To add to this, Doug has also undertaken his Passivhaus training and is a former Director of Wood Knowledge Wales which is a not for profit, for the public good, membership organisation inspiring a movement capable of leading a dramatic expansion of the forestry and wood-based industries in Wales.