Who we are
Dialogue is the foundation of our practice.
Every project begins with a conversation between the people who will inhabit a space and the land it sits upon. This is where we listen to the stories of the people who live in a place, and how we translate those narratives into physical environments that are as honest as they are human centred.
We go into every meeting to listen. We ask questions, and we listen to the answers. Once we understand what a client needs and what they want, we go to the drawing board.
The questions are about feeling before they are about building. What you want the space to feel like. How you want to feel when you walk into it. Whether there is a space, anywhere, that gave you a feeling you have wanted ever since.
The rest follows from the answers.
What We Value
People, we value people. We believe creativity and design shape people's lives and can make them better. We work with organisations to get them where they want to go, by building a real relationship and making decisions with care.
We value integrity and excellence, they are at the core of who we are and guide our approach to every project we undertake. Our dedication to our values and ideals is integral to how we operate. We continuously improve our processes and set ambitious goals. Our skills are genuine, proven and growing.
01
Security & Privacy
Your personal data is protected in line with our Privacy Policy. Your project is protected too: we do not publish a client's work without permission, and some of our work is not on this site for that reason.
02
Transparency
We are committed to transparency in our studio. We believe that by being open, truthful and honest we can improve the quality of our services and relationships with our customers.
03
Growth
We are still learning and we intend to keep doing it. Every project teaches us something about material, about cost, and about how people actually use a space and what matters to them.
04
Team Work
We combine different specialties, talents and backgrounds, and the result is better than any of us would manage alone. Communication and collaboration are how this studio works.
05
Community Outreach
We believe it is important to be part of the communities we serve. We do that by designing spaces that are human centred, accessible and inclusive. Someone walking in for the first time should not have to wonder whether they belong.
06
Integrity and Dedication
Integrity is a fundamental part of our everyday lives, and it shows in the work. We do what we said we would do, and when something changes we tell you before you find out.
Our Story
The question we keep coming back to arrived early, on a project that had no name yet: how do you design rest as a physical space? Not a room to rest in — rest itself, as something a building can hold. For a city with very diverse people but a single cultural core, and a market where the good spaces were expensive, exclusive, or quietly unwelcoming to everyday people.
That project became Mairel's Bookshop. Nothing in it was fixed. Everything moved. It was built to change with the seasons and with whoever was in it that day, and people came to describe it as restful, as safe, and as theirs — which is the only review of a space that actually counts.
It was not our first project and it will not be our last, but it explains us better than anything else we could write here. We have asked a version of that first question on every project since.
