[Y/N] Studio is a creative platform established to ask questions of the built environment  

The complexity associated with designing and constructing our cities is astounding and a great deal of architecture serves only to add complexity.  We think the role of the designer is to question these established but convoluted processes and reduce complexity.

We work with the various inputs, histories, technologies and constraints with which we are presented to formulate a response rather than imposing an abstract theology, manifesto or style.  We, as architects, are editors of the process.  The questions, and the problems, can be incredibly complex, but a successful answer should be as simple as Yes or No.

While disparate in nature, scale, form and material, our projects are all characterised by a combination of pragmatic problem solving and idealistic ingenuity. We call this approach Pragmatic Idealism.

Since forming as a company in 2017,  we have been working on a diverse range of commissions, including carefully detailed residential extensions, 100+ multi-unit housing schemes, a large workspace in Dalston, A masterplan in Portugal,  a mixed-use tower in South London and a footbridge for Network Rail.

In 2019 we completed our first project, a carefully detailed prefabricated timber and glass house.  Notable other projects include a competition winning scheme for 4 coastal holiday homes in Kent, which are designed as a continuous spiral of floorplates to maximise sea views and reduce circulation space.  More recently we gained planning permission for our largest scheme to date, a 49 home mixed use project in Strood which combines traditional vernacular roof forms with a traditional courtyard housing project.

In 2022 we completed the extension and refurbishment of the Bradbury Street Workspaces which face onto Gillett Square in Hackney. Bradbury Works includes around 1500m2 of new and refurbished affordable workspaces, and start-up retail units which will help to ensure continuity of the unique and diverse community that has emerged since the square was constructed nearly 20 years ago.

The people who work with us are talented and ambitious with backgrounds working in across Europe for internationally recognized practices. As a studio we are active in teaching and academia and appreciate the importance of architectural education. Director Alex Smith currently teaches at Oxford Brookes University, University of Westminster, Canterbury School of Architecture and London Metropolitan University.

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