Oza Sabbeth Architects. Image courtesy of Conor Harrigan.

Oza Sabbeth Architects is a Long Island, New York-based architecture and construction practice founded in 2014 by architect Nilay Oza and artist Peter Sabbeth. The pair runs a 10-person design-build office that focuses almost exclusively on high-end residential projects in the Long Island area. This specific project focus, as well as the firm's in-house construction capabilities, gives the design team an ability to iterate a variety of sumptuous spatial and material approaches with the help of their uncompromising clients. The arrangement has also made working from home a particular challenge for the hands-on team.

We caught up with Oza and Sabbeth to discuss where the firm stands in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, how the practice is pursuing new work, and what the future of the firm's office culture might look like post-pandemic. 

Where and when did your studio start?

Oza Sabbeth Architects opened its door is June 2014. While the shingle on the door is new, we⁠—partners⁠ Nilay Oza, an architect by profession, and Peter Sabbeth, a painter by training⁠⁠—have been honed by the years of designing and building homes. Over the years, we have learned a valuable skill: What makes a memorable home.

How many people work at the company?

10

How would you describe the nature of your practice in terms of specialization and/or market / project focus?

At Oza Sabbeth, we both design and build homes. We think of the home as an instrument of shelter. It is an ambient environment that infuses our lives with the essential elements for balancing and recharging.We believe that the simple act of walking through a well-designed home, as it responds to the passing day and perennial seasons, should be a worthy experience in and of itself.We operate on the Eastern End of Long Island; The Hamptons.

How has your practice shifted in response to the pandemic on a day-to-day level?

First, it must be said, we were able to shift our work practice in response to the pandemic because of those who could not. Those millions kept our society moving by showing up to their workplaces every day. We are grateful for their contributions and thankful to them every day.We went remote mid-March, instituted a daily "Zoom scrum," and moved all internal communication over to Slack. Since we were already operating on a software as a service model, this bit of the operation was quite portable.

In terms of our shift; We went remote mid-March, instituted a daily "Zoom scrum," and moved all internal communication over to Slack.

Since we were already operating on a software as a service model, this bit of the operation was quite portable. We did need to integrate a management tool to visualize the work and prioritize it. For this, we've begun to use Asana.

Do you anticipate returning to your office once the stay-at-home orders are lifted? Will your work-from-home policies be extended permanently after it is safe to return to the office?

We are all still working through what this work reality will look like, but it will not continue as a work-from-home policy. While productivity was good during this time, we feel a remote work model favors an overly systematized workflow. Our intuition is that the more intangible indicators like creativity and motivation are likely to suffer. We also have a young staff, a flat organization, and we build (which requires presence in the field), proximity allows for better cooperation and training.

we feel a remote work model favors an overly systematized workflow. Our intuition is that the more intangible indicators like creativity and motivation are likely to suffer. 

The one heuristic we follow is from The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle: "Groups work best separated by no more than eight feet." The one counterpoint to all this is traffic. Being at the end of an Island has it’s challenges in terms of getting in and out. We want to be able to alleviate this by standardizing some remote working routines. At present, the office will be physically "open" Tuesdays and Thursdays and for the remaining days we will work remote.

What sorts of design changes do you anticipate making to your physical office setup if / when you return?

Not many physical ones - We are however making it possible to more easily connect in-office physical groups with team mates who happen to be working remotely.

What are you currently working on?

We currently have four houses under construction, three of which we are building and one that is being built in Florida by an independent GC. We are also in SD and DD on a couple of houses. We resurrected an old project and began working on it as an in-house design-charrette during the pandemic, which, not surprisingly, has acquired a post-apocalyptic mood. Its called,“Shelter In Place.” And finally, we’re working on a workshop entitled "The Residential Wall: Between Form and Facade" for The Architect’s Newspaper Facades+ Conference in September 2020.

What is your approach for getting new projects at the moment?

Our homes are being put through a society-wide stress test and will change how we engage with them. It is clear, for instance, that homes with yards are more desirable than apartments. This, among other factors, is resulting in people with the means to leave New York City and relocate to the Hamptons. To speak to this societal shift, we have recognized a few unique aspects of our practice, and to underscore these aspects, we've launched a new website. Currently we are actively driving potential clientele to it and have made a conscious effort to quite literally to explain "How we work" as an organizing principle of the site. 

We believe there is now a significant base of homes built in the last twenty years that should not be torn down. These homes should be renovated. 

One unique aspect that we are highlighting on our site is renovations. Renovations are generally undervalued by Architects in favor of demolishing and building anew. We believe there is now a significant base of homes built in the last twenty years that should not be torn down. These homes should be renovated. Big picture, engaging in an ethos of renovating is a more sustainable approach than to continually demolish and rebuild. Demolishing a 3,000-square-foot house requires an average of 20 tractor-trailers of debris heading to the landfill. A commitment to sustainability has to start with the question of whether a structure can be reused. As a design-build architects, we renovate structures quite radically and are suited to this type of project's risks and uncertainties - moreover, renovating helps us see what has gone wrong with buildings over time. This in turn makes us better designers. For our clients, the right renovations project tends to be a better value than to reflexively tear down and rebuild.

What are you looking for (skill sets, qualities, capacities,etc.) in potential new hires?

Our ideal hire should reflect our team. The candidate should have a willingness to question the metes and bounds of the profession. They should understand that a detail is not captured in three dimensions; it requires an understanding of the fourth dimension of time. And this as as to acknowledge the sequence of construction and how a building comes together. They should be willing to look at a wall section as a design drawing, rather than a "documentation of construction." We build most of our projects and find that this experience invigorates our design practice. It is an ethos we want the candidate to share as well.