Marta Nowicka

Marta Nowicka is a Polish-British interior architect, property developer, and academic, known for her award-winning designs in adaptive re-use architecture. Her work encompasses many projects, including residential and commercial spaces that focus on building re-use and site-specific designs. She is a recipient of the Architects' Journal (AJ) Retrofit Award.

Marta Nowicka was born to a first-generation immigrant Polish family in 1964 in Westminster, London. Her father, Leszek Nowicki, was a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) member. He was one of the Ronald Ward & Partners design team architects for London's Millbank complex.¹ Her mother, Elizabeth Nowicka née Modelska, was a fashion designer and owned Lizzy Boutique on Old Brompton Road in the 60s and 70s.²

Nowicka interned at her father's firm before attending an art foundation course and then an interior architecture degree under Fred Scott, Alan Phillips and Ben Kelly at Kingston University.³ The course was integral in her developing a passion for converting existing buildings to new uses.³

Nowicka's career began working at various London architectural practices. In 1993, she co-founded her first business, Nowicka Stern and co-designed Fabric, Hanover Grand Nightclub, and Cyberia, the first internet café in London.³

In 2003, she launched Nowicka & CO and introduced clients to a new interior design style focused on a site-specific narrative.⁴ Here, her designs, which retained details from the original structure, set her apart from other designers. Clients include Karsten Schubert, Gavin Turk,⁵ Peter Peri, Michael Landy and Gillian Wearing.⁵⁶

Alongside her client work, Nowicka also did property development.⁷⁸ As a result, she changed her business model. She switched focus for her design consultancy to create DOMstay (originally DOMstay&live).⁹

Among Nowicka's notable projects is the former St John's Ambulance Station in E.Sussex, which she converted into a 4-bedroom home. She preserved its architectural integrity while introducing modern elements that mix medieval and references to modern medicine.¹⁰¹¹¹² The property was featured on Channel 4's Ugly House to Lovely House with George Clarke,¹³ was a finalist for the World Architecture Awards and has received the AJ Retrofit Award in the house under £250,000 category.¹⁴

Nowicka is also known for converting a 45m2 garage into a 126m2 three-bedroom home, The Gouse, a portmanteau of garage and house.¹⁵ The house features cedar shingles and yellow stock brick, designed to improve the street elevation and blend with the end-of-garden surroundings.¹⁶