ABOUT US
At NUEN® — Nourishing Environments — our mission is to democratise architectural design by making professional insights — architectural insights related to healthy buildings — accessible to everyone. We believe that healthier, more sustainable living environments shouldn't be a luxury reserved just for the few. We offer affordable, personalised tools that empower building industry professionals, organisation leaders and home-owners transform their buildings and spaces for better health and wellbeing.
We provide design services, advisory reports, digital tools and inspiration in an affordable way by leveraging technology; a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach; extensive architectural experience within the South East (UK) and digital tools. Our website delivers educational content, quizzes, books and reports — that are grounded in the latest scientific findings and best practice building design.
Our commitment is to help more project types (than are currently been catered for) achieve healthy, energising, uplifting and health-promoting environments. Whether you are aiming for professional certification, such as WELL, prefer to start with a simpler approach, or just want to improve your own home, we can help you create spaces that support physical and mental health, enhance productivity and promote sustainability.
By making architectural design services more inclusive and accessible, we aim to foster healthier, happier and more resilient communities for generations to come.
We are on a mission to place human and planetary health at the forefront of decision-making; and to provide access to information on how buildings affect your health. We wish to catalyse rapid advances in the quality of our everyday living environments and to offer efficiencies and cost-savings to project teams while enabling higher quality buildings.
Health of the planet and health of human beings goes hand-in-hand; and it is therefore important to design healthy buildings to also be environmentally sustainable.
Our team consists of qualified, UK-licensed architects, formally trained in healthy buildings and sustainable design. We work with a network of additional specialist consultants, engineers and advisors. Our architects are RIBA chartered and UK-licensed and we have worked on various award-winning projects in London and the South-East of UK, as well as on both luxury and affordable residential developments at all project stages: feasibility, concept design, planning, tender, construction and post-construction.
NUEN® and Ulla Tervo Architects are both trading names of UTA Architects Ltd.
Ulla Tervo, founder of Ulla Tervo Architects, created NUEN out of a deep conviction that healthy building design should not be a privilege, but a fundamental right accessible to all. Her passion stems from witnessing, both professionally and personally, how profoundly our environments shape our health, productivity, mood and life opportunities. Ulla’s work is guided by a belief that architecture should nourish both people and the planet — not just in terms of aesthetics or function, but in the deeper sense of supporting holistic wellbeing, inclusion and sustainability.
Ulla’s motivation is at once practical and philosophical: she seeks to challenge ‘architecture as luxury’ by making the best knowledge, tools and strategies for healthy design widely available, affordable and actionable. She recognises that current business-as-usual architecture is often bespoke and expensive. This leaves behind vast swathes of the population — especially the most vulnerable, for whom healthy environments are most critical.
Ulla is a RIBA Chartered and ARB licensed Architect practicing in the UK since 1999 and originally from Finland. She is a trained healthy buildings specialist (WELL AP).
In addition to healthy buildings and architecture, Ulla is passionate about cold-water swimming, long walks along the coast and raw foods.
Ulla has lead projects in London and the South-east whose values range from £160,000 to over £100M and has extensive experience of all project stages, from feasibility studies to planning and construction.
Ulla was the recipient of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) Bronze Medal in 2004 and has worked on many other award-winning projects since, from individual houses to larger developments.
Prior to starting her own practice, Ulla worked at some of UK’s leading architectural companies, including Allies and Morrison, McAslan + Partners, David Kohn Architects, PDP London, Caruso St. John Architects, the Architecture Research Unit (ARU) and Hawkins\Brown Architects.
Ulla studied at the University of California, Berkeley (USA); the Architectural Association; the London Metropolitan University and King’s College London. The fields of study covered architecture, city & regional planning, healthy buildings and philosophy.