An extract from questions put to us by Richard Waite at the Architects Journal in an article from July 2022

You can find a link to the article here

Where have you come from?

After graduating from Manchester University I joined Stanton Williams in London. Working at Stanton Williams was a formative time for me, I learned an awful lot working there.  After a number of years in London I relocated to my native Wales and joined Loyn & Co Architects. After a few years and some remote work for other London studios, I set up my own practice January 2021.

What work do you have and what kind of projects are you looking for?

We are currently working on a mixture of projects from refurb domestic work to new builds. A growing number of hospitality and workplace projects are also currently in the pipeline in both Wales and London. But we are looking at new ways of winning work be it through competitions, commissions or facilitation. Going forward we'd like to focus our efforts in and work with clients who want to reuse and retain. We sometimes get a confused look from clients when we mention this, but after explaining the benefits in financial and environmental terms the reaction is always positive. My experience has shown me that through the retention and retrofitting existing buildings a far richer Architectural language can develop. 

We are also working hard to find sites and opportunities for our clients that may then develop in to commissions, trying to actively 'create' projects, Dan Benham's Grange Pavilion in Cardiff's Grangetown, a recent RWSA award winner, is a wonderful example of that. I think this is one way in which we can demonstrate value and perhaps distinguish ourselves from other offices. Our current work exhibits a fascination with distilling the clarity of an idea whilst leaving enough opportunity in a project to have a little fun, we believe Architecture has an incredible ability to drastically improve the way people live their lives, and it does so quietly. We want to work with people that see things the same way.

What are your ambitions? 

Our goal is to be a leading young practice within the next decade. Our passion and enthusiasm seem to be winning us work and the next challenge will be growing whilst holding on to that thread of an idea that I had when I set the practice up. We see opportunities for collaborating with other studios or disciplines as a means of growing and remaining nimble enough to tackle any type of project.

Writing a response to these questions has been a valuable exercise. It's a bit of a cliche but working outside of London does give you a slightly different perspective. There just isn't the same amount of money thrown at projects, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it has forced us to continually readdress and revisit the value we bring to our clients. It has also forced us to consider and to think about who we are and what we value. We are a young Welsh Architecture practice where hardly any exist and in an Architectural context that doesn't seem to garner much recognition from the Architectural press. We are not bitter, to a large extent it is warranted. But this has created an identify crisis. We admire and study works by David Lea, Graham Brooks and Chris Loyn but also see find ourselves often looking at the work of other Architects with whom we not only share the Celtic sea but a similar typological and socio-economic condition. Wales is unique in that it exists geographically and metaphorically in a place between both the Anglo, European and Celtic spheres and has been heavily influenced by all for thousands of years. We are still trying to grapple what that means to us, but it is an interesting observation and I think it has made us question what it is we want to be and the sort of ambitions we have for the future.

What are the biggest challenges facing yourself as a start-up and the profession generally?

Starting an office within the grips of a global pandemic has been a bit of a challenge, I'm not an avid zoom fan, my bad jokes just don't land and it's a challenge to build any sort of rapport with another human over that medium. But we let our work do the talking and like all offices we've adapted, we've tried to learn and see the benefit in remote working be it in teaching or in practice, but Architecture is ultimately physical discipline. I just hope now that we've come out the other end. But I am a product of the 2008 crash, I left University as a Part 1 and practically had to wedge my foot in the door to get a job, I fear that many other young Architects will have to do the same relatively soon. This produced a generation of young Architects that are wary and do not rest on their laurels and I see so many new offices starting up and producing interesting work, it's encouraging to see. But as a profession we have a real problem with promoting young talent. Because of our closed procurement system young offices have for a long time found it hard to make the jump from domestic to public or private work. We have the talent and solutions but the way we appoint and procure buildings is antiquated and I see the same mistakes made time and again. Couple this with student debt and inequality and our profession is in real trouble. Our institutions have struggled to improve awareness and access to the profession for students from lower income backgrounds and although we have seen some positive news concerning dropouts rates for genders other than male, the profession is still very white and very well off and the numbers show it. Unless any of the above is addressed very soon I don't think we will have the well rounded Architects that would we need to tackle the very real problems that face our society and planet.

Which scheme, completed in the last five years, has inspired you most?

There are many but it has to be Jamie Fobert's extension to the Tate St Ives. I have visited many times, in all seasons and the building is wonderfully mercurial. The quality of light in the main gallery is exquisite and it is easily one of the best galleries in the United Kingdom.

How are you marketing yourselves?

The old adage, "let your work do the talking" only gets you so far these days. We obviously have a website and instagram and try to be selective about what we share but instagram is a bit of an echo chamber. The challenge we are grappling with is understanding what sort of marketing works and how that cuts through to the right sort of client. Hopefully as we build more, and enter more competitions we might win some awards our work will begin to grab attention.