Location? 

The Centro Building in Camden

When did the practice start? 

2001

How many staff?

We are currently around 45

Company ethos?

We are best known for carefully crafted contemporary projects in sensitive historic environments. We are influenced by an Arts & Crafts approach to texture and a strong sense of materiality linked to the local, but often achieved through new technologies and digital fabrication.    

The concept of ‘designing through making’ and a close connection to materials is very important to us. We have close links with Grymsdyke Farm, a digital fabrication centre in Buckinghamshire, and we use this, as well as our own workshops, as a testing ground for new ideas. 

Current projects?

We recently completed The Copyright Building in Fitzrovia and the refurbishment of Derwent London's headquarters on Savile Row. Our church in West London has just started on site as has a co-working scheme for Brockton Capital/Fora. We are working on the design stage of a range of residential and workplace projects, mostly across London.

You designed your own studio space, what kind of space did you aim to achieve, what facilities were important to you? 

We are very interested in the idea of replicating the school of architecture model with the architectural office. We work as three 'design studios', each headed by a director, and these three spaces each have informal collaborative spaces for teams to work together. We run design reviews in a way that is quite similar to crits and the meeting room doors slide right back to transform the meeting room into a small lecture space with wide steps for informal seating. The workshop is a beautiful big space located at the heart of the studio, rather than tucked away in a basement or a back room. There are also private, contemplative spaces for quiet concentration, like the library where you can retreat from the hubbub of the studio. We like to mix-up the traditional front-of-house/back-of-house divisions and encourage our clients and visitors to encounter the messy experimental parts of the studio as much as the more formal meeting rooms. 

How did you included the team in this process? 

We designed the entire fit-out, including the joinery and cabinetry. By designing down to this level, we incorporated many elements which were actually constructed by our staff. For example, we designed the library as a kit of parts, CNC cut the plywood and then about 6 members of the studio assembled the walls/shelving units in a giant flat pack project.

Favorite part of the studio?

Hard to decide between the library and the large workshop with its lovely big crittall windows. In the new studio we are creating lots of different environments to suit different types of tasks, using our own space to experiment with ideas about variation and domesticity in workspace design.

Favorite nearby coffee shop? 

Leya's near Mornington Crescent tube station. 

Do you eat lunch together?

We have a big long kitchen table now and at least half the office eats lunch together everyday

Pets allowed? 

We currently have a visitor called Edie—a Sprocker spaniel 

Most played song/artist/musician?  

We've become too big to agree on music 

Favourite architect?

As an office, we have an international staff who all bring their regional references to discussions. We talk a lot about the work of Sverre Fehn and Eduardo Souto De Moura

Favourite building in London?

Royal College of Physicians by Denys Lasdun