31/44 Architects was founded in 2010 by Will Burges and Stephen Davies. Today the practice has grown to a team of nine, based in East London, and has picked up a few nominations and awards along the way, most notably for No. 49 and Red House. Their projects range in size from small-scale residential work to strategic masterplanning.

A-Zero Architects is a RIBA chartered practice based in London.

Since 2010, the studio’s work has focused on designing and procuring buildings in a way that doesn’t harm the environment. Working predominantly in the residential sector, the practice enjoys working at a variety of scales from residential retrofits to new build houses, to mixed use developments. They strive to create joyful spaces using a palette of natural materials, whilst targeting low energy performance, including the Passivhaus standard.

A-Zero works collaboratively with clients through all stages of a project, from feasibility, planning, detailed design, and tendering to contract administration during construction, and aim to embed environmental considerations through all of these stages, combining functional, cost-effective architecture with a sense of specificity to the client and the place.

British architect Adam Richards BA(Hons) BSc(Hons) DipArch(Cantab) RIBA founded his eponymous practice in 2000. Based in London and Sussex, Adam Richards Architects encompass a broad remit, with projects across the arts, cultural, heritage and residential sectors. ARA aim to create engaging, critical, spatial and social environments that transform the deeper cultural themes which contextualise each project.

Despite often being challenged with unusual sites or unique objects, Adam Richards Architects have built a reputation for the quality of their designs. Working collaboratively, their approach combines inspiring, inventive and affordable ways to realise their ideas. The practice has won national and international awards, such as the Royal Institute of British Architects National Award for Walmer Castle and Wallpaper* Magazine Worldwide Best New House 2020 for Nithurst Farm.

@adamrichardsarchitects

Image credits: Nithurst Farm by Brotherton Lock (1-7); Quinta da Serra (8-11); and Mission Hall (12-14).

Adjaye Associates was founded in 2000 by Sir David Adjaye OBE – an award-winning Ghanaian-British architect who infuses his synonymous practice with a dedication to community-driven projects and acute artistic sensibilities. His clever use of materials, bespoke designs and unique vision are widely recognised. So much so, he was awarded a knighthood in 2017, and listed as one of the 100 most influential people of the year in TIME magazine.

Adjaye Associates have a stellar portfolio that spans a wide range of projects, from commercial and cultural buildings to educational facilities, and even product design. Their residential projects never fail to both innovate and inspire, whether through their creative use of site, homage to a home’s history, or meticulous mix of materials. Adjaye Associates have studios in Accra, London and New York and, most recently, won the 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal.

@adjayeassociates

Image credits: Dirty House (1-2); Mole House by Ed Reeve (3-6); Carriage House (7-8); Hill House (9-10); Nanjing House by Ed Reeve (11-12); Nkron Private Villa (1-14); and Sunken House / Ed’s Shed by Ed Reeve (15-16).

Founded by James Alder and Thom Brisco, this London-based architecture practice works across the UK, designing spaces to live and work, as well as exhibition spaces and furniture. Alder Brisco has had its projects featured in Dezeen, Architects’ Journal and the RIBA Journal.

Their innovative ‘attic of warm wooden curiosities’ for Studio Represent was shortlisted for the Architects’ Journal’s Small Projects Award, and Alder Brisco’s four cast benches – a collaborative work at Rectory Lane Cemetery in Hertfordshire – have been shortlisted for RIBA Journal’s 2021 MacEwen Award, which celebrates ‘architecture for the common good’.

Alder Brisco was recently included in the fourth edition of New Architects – an influential series of publications that features the best British practices that have been established in the last 10 years, which work across architecture, urban design, public space and related specialisms.

Image credits: Studio Represent by Agnese Sanvito (1-4); Studio Nencini by Nick Dearden (4-6 & cover)

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Alma-nac is a London based, RIBA-Chartered architecture practice. They work with private, commercial and public clients across a wide range of scales and sectors. Critical to their approach as an architectural studio is ideas. Be they small or large, it is the strength of their ideas that form the crux of all Alma-nac projects. And this is obvious in the creative, innovative projects they produce. As they state, “we believe great ideas come from an in depth understanding of the environment they inhabit or the constraints with which they are bound, be they cultural, legal, environmental, physical, or even ontological.”

A rustic renovation of a dilapidated Cheshire garden workshop offers a beautifully contemporary and light-filled commercial workspace for the six associates of Annabelle Tugby Architects. Working around just one desk to create a level working structure, the team use the same collaborative approach across their architecture, urban design, interior and furniture design work, specialising in high-end residential projects.

With a contemporary, vernacular style, Annabelle Tugby Architects focus on textural contrast, light and acoustics alongside finely crafted, minimalist detailing for both their individual residential builds and larger multi-occupancy projects. Creating intricate card and timber models in-house, clients are able to envisage complex projects including exterior, interior and elevation detail. The firm’s principles include designing buildings that become intrinsic to their setting and respect their surroundings, as well as a design process that focuses on feeling to create joy for everyone involved.

The company was shortlisted for the 2020 Architects Journal Small Project Award and was a finalist in two categories at the Surface Design Awards 2020.

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ao-ft is a London based architecture office dedicated to design, construction and education. Our projects are developed by creating personal experiences that connect individuals with their surroundings through function and material. We design these spaces and objects in relation to the architectural aspects of context, economy, and fabrication with the intent to enhance the well-being of those who inhabit them. As a practice, we pursue architecture that links the cycles of nature with the built environment. ao-ft is a RIBA Chartered Practice

Architecture for London is an award winning, RIBA Chartered architecture practice dedicated to the creation of better buildings and places. Their work includes both new build houses and alterations to existing homes, from London house extensions and basements to lofts and garden rooms. Each provides inspiring, light filled spaces for living and entertaining. They have extensive experience with heritage properties, where there is often a need to balance sensitive refurbishment with carefully considered contemporary intervention. Projects are designed holistically with architecture, landscape, joinery and interiors each interlocking to form a coherent whole. They can also achieve Passivhaus standards with dramatically improved thermal performance, creating warmer and more comfortable homes. Their residential projects are widely recognised, with recent shortlistings in the AJ Small Projects, AJ Retrofit and NLA Don’t Move Improve awards.

Archmongers is an award-winning architectural studio based in East London and founded by Margaret Bursa and Johan Hybschmann. The team have worked on several notable residential projects, these include creative updates within Brutalist icons the Barbican Estate and Trellick Tower, plus a modern and unexpected transformation of a Victorian townhouse. 

Known for their confident use of colour and interesting materials to achieve bold results, Archmongers offer a fully integrated interior design service that complements the overarching architectural concept​. They collaborate closely with clients and oversee every stage from design to on-site construction to completion. 

The practice’s designs are joyous to look at yet practical and built to last. They utilise hardwearing materials to create uplifting and playful spaces. Archmongers have been nominated for many prestigious awards including Don’t Move, Improve, Dezeen and AJ Small Projects.

Bindloss Dawes Architects is a RIBA-chartered, award-winning architecture studio founded in 2018 by Oliver Bindloss and George Dawes. 

The practice is known for creating thoughtful, finely crafted architecture that balances design excellence with innovation, sustainability, and value. Every project is approached as a collaborative process, with the aim of delivering timeless spaces that respond sensitively to clients’ needs while striving for permanence and quality. 

This award-winning architecture practice was founded by Katerina Dionysopoulou and Billy Mavropoulos. The pair combine their architectural expertise with their passion for playfulness to create spaces, products and environments that feel innovative and intriguing. Both trained at Foster+Partners; while Katerina joined Heatherwick Studio and led the team designing the UK Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo (winning the Lubetkin Prize), Billy worked as an independent design consultant and featured in Wallpaper* magazine’s next generation issue in 2010, as a designer who will change the face of design within the next 30 years.

In 2018, the practice’s work was selected as part of the 250th Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, coordinated by Grayson Perry RA. Bureau de Change has won numerous awards, including the FX Breakthrough Talent of the Year 2016, the Sunday Times Architect of the Year award 2019 and, most recently, was shortlisted for the RIBA Awards 2020. Both Billy and Katerina currently teach UG4 at the Bartlett School of Architecture.

@bureaudechange_architects

Image credits: Long House (1-3) and The Interlock (4-6) by Gilbert McCarragher; Cast House (7-8) by Caroline Charrel; Folds House (9-10); Slab House (11-12) and Step House (13-14) by Ben Blossom.

CAN was founded in 2016 by Mat Barnes RIBA ARB, who was formerly an Associate at Studio 54. This London-based architectural studio designs characterful – and often colourful – homes, installations and workplaces that respond to their social and physical contexts.

Attention is paid to pattern, line, colour and form to create idiosyncratic and striking projects that reflect their clients’ unique personalities and interests. CAN believe that architecture can – and should – make the city a more joyful, inclusive and inspiring place to be. They provide a fully tailored design service to guide clients through the home-making process, from developing a brief to moving in.

CAN’s work has won multiple awards and has been featured by The Times, *Wallpaper and Dezeen, amongst others.

Casswell Bank Architects was founded by Alex Bank and Sam Casswell in 2015 after they won a competition to design an outdoor workspace at esteemed art gallery Hauser + Wirth in Somerset. The practice believes in generous architecture that leaves an enduring and positive impression on a building, with unexpected combinations of materials used to emphasise the character of a space.

With each new project, the duo places importance on creating an architectural character that reflects the client’s ambitions and also the qualities and context of the site. Working on both large and small-scale projects, their work to date includes private residences, reconfigurations of historic institutions and commissions for cultural organisations such as the Dales Countryside Museum.

Selected images by David Grandorge.

The husband and wife duo behind Chan and Eayrs – Zoe and Merlin – began working together after meeting as architecture students. The award-winning team’s much-celebrated interiors are distinctive both aesthetically and conceptually. Instead of designing around a client brief, Chan and Eayrs create each home from scratch with a holistic and unique approach. They live on-site throughout the project to get a feel for the space, architecture and light before they begin crafting and designing.

With total creative freedom, the pair take on the role of investor, developer, architect and interior designer, thoughtfully creating a home they love over a period of at least two years. To fully dedicate themselves to each project, they consciously work on only one project at a time. After the completion and sale of a home, the lengthy explorative design process begins again in a new setting.

Of the exceptional homes that Chan and Eayrs have already completed, The Beldi – a factory conversion in Shoreditch – might be the best-known and most publicised, with its striking green interiors and Moroccan influence.

Ben Edgley and Eoin O’Leary established ConForm Architects in 2017, having gained 15 years experience at award-winning architect firms in London, Ireland and Australia between them. Each project is lead by the practice’s dedication to creating transformative, contextual and original architecture, with social, cultural and historical factors always afforded due influence. ConForm use digital media, exploratory models and precision mock-ups to test their designs, pushing them to their full potential. This results in confident and innovative architecture that’s equally as assured in both form and function.

@conformarchitects

Images: Repoussoir by Simone Bossi (1-3); Dormore by Ståle Eriksen (4-6); Levels Ten+Eleven by Simone Bossi (7-9); Parallel Lines by Lorenzo Zandri (10-12); and Outhouse-In by Simone Bossi (13-14).

Sandra Coppin and Bev Dockray have worked closely together for over 20 years. They founded Coppin Dockray in 2012 and carry out a range of architectural and design services. Their work has ranged from exhibition stands to one off houses, and they have collected several awards as they’ve grown. They have a love for 20^th century architecture and have carried out projects on a number of Grade I and Grade II listed buildings. At the heart of their business is a commitment to relationships. They value the importance of building long-term partnerships, with clients but also with suppliers, builders, makers and consultants.

Founded in 2014, the London-based daab design is a RIBA Chartered practice led by Anais Blehaut and Dennis Austin. Experienced and agile, the practice values collaboration, inclusiveness, craftsmanship and clear communication across their mixed scale of projects, which span city planning to residential homes. Whatever they undertake, a respect for context, heritage and detail is maintained throughout, with outcomes that endure due to their viability and sustainability.

@daabdesign

Image credits: Pine Nut Cabane (1-4) by Henry Woide; Guild (5-8) by Jim Stephenson; and Regency (9-10) by Grant Smith.

Founded in 2009 by Jonathan Dallas, David Pierce and Juliet Quintero, Dallas-Pierce-Quintero is an award winning studio based in London. In 2015 it was runner up in the RIBA – London’s Emerging Practice Award. Their work is always beautiful and often unexpected, covering not just architecture, but furniture and public art and spaces too. One of their key approaches is to involve the users and inhabitants of spaces and places in the design process, engaging them in open dialogue to develop highly specific work.

David Nossiter is known for his authentic yet spatially complex contemporary architecture, working from an approach that incorporates the needs of the client, the topography of the landscape and the orientation of the site as equal and foremost considerations. David’s work ranges from rural barn conversions to urban new builds – all designed in his London studio.

David Nossiter Architects’ portfolio includes the award-winning Church Hill Barn – a listed, dilapidated barn complex that was transformed into a strikingly unique home, making dramatic use of the building’s original features and proving that “cathedral like spaces can be made liveable” (The Sunday Times).

All images by Steve Lancefield for David Nossiter Architects.