Feilden Fowles is a leading young architecture practice, committed to sustainable design. We have a hands-on approach to construction and materials, working through models and prototypes. We celebrate the physical qualities and inherent structural properties of materials, an approach that results in a rich and experiential architecture. We are interested in all scales of design, engaging in a multi-disciplinary approach through early collaboration with designers, the trades and complimentary professions.

Our buildings exhibit a playfulness with existing typologies and modes of construction. Projects are shaped by the prevailing conditions and detailed with precision and subtlety. Our sensitive yet inventive response to the vernacular and unique features of each scheme’s context leads to proposals routed in their rural landscape or urban setting. Projects emerge from a clear concept and legible diagram, which in turn informs and drives the detailed design. Our investigation of each project begins by developing an intimate understanding of both place and people, combining existing conditions with human needs, to arrive at simple, functional and inspiring structures. Form may be inspired by geology, natural history or the vernacular of an area but is honed and refined by human necessity.

The scale of our work ranges from furniture design and installations through to masterplanning and urban research. We currently have projects in housing, education, the commercial sector, masterplanning and the arts. We use our projects to push forward a material, concept, structure or programme to new limits, and pride ourselves on delivering pure and conceptually strong buildings.

Our studio serves as the creative hub of the practice and is energetic and experimental; we enjoy passionate discussions about our designs and put a lot of energy into testing our ideas.

As a practice we believe in collaboration in its widest sense and to this end regularly invite other designers to share our space and participate in design reviews. We find this multidisciplinary approach to be mutually beneficial, enriching the work produced by each side. We share our building with fashion designers, sculptors, photographers and industrial designers. The creative networks in the area are a rich source of young design talent, and we are looking forward to working alongside an increasing number of diverse and exciting professionals.

In 2010 we moved into our current home, an old shoe factory in East London. We converted the space ourselves, stripping back to the inherent form and making our own furniture. More recently we created a dedicating model-making workshop. The raw structure of the space is being refined year-on-year in order to provide improved thermal performance and to test materials we are interested in, while the metal framed windows and fair faced concrete structure retain the original industrial character. We aim to lead by example, reducing energy usage through investing and experimenting with the existing building fabric. There are plans to expand the studio in the near future to give us more room for our growing practice and to allow greater experimentation.