Learning From What’s There

The alignment of architectural space with cultural identity is a key task for us as architects. We tailor the form and materiality of our architecture both to project the qualities of particular organisations out into the wider context of neighbourhoods, streets and landscape, and to distil the atmosphere of those places back into individual buildings. Many of our projects are set in historic or highly sensitive contexts, either in listed buildings or for clients with a strong and valuable existing identity. Others might be in quite ‘ordinary’ settings with more subtle qualities, or for clients forging their path in new territories.

Equally, many projects take their place within a typological tradition - classrooms, libraries or auditoria for example - that can inform and enrich new examples within the genre. Alongside research into specific building typologies, we concentrate on developing the physical spaces that will accommodate and align with our clients’ individual personalities, to the extent that academic organisations and their student cohort have often moved into new, radically different physical spaces and yet have immediately felt ‘at home’.