We are a young and ambitious collective of architectural designers and makers with a special appreciation for craft, community, and sustainability. While we come from a shared architectural education at Kingston School of Art, our practice and passion for design and making expands beyond the borders of architecture.
During our time at Kingston University there was a mutual interest in culture and an open-mindedness that allowed for a flow of ideas between people from different places and backgrounds. The core of the collective includes Pablo Feito Boirac, Salah Krichen, & Madoka Ellis, who were later joined by Josie Marie Brogan, Stefan Necula, Francesca Merton, Benrico Stripe, and Yasir Ibrahim. We all found a mutual interest in 1:1 builds and the design of the processes that make Things, as well as the Things themselves. It was a process that wasn’t based on an individual, but rather collective thinking and doing, and constantly learning from one another. Without realising, we were nurturing a mutual interest in craft, community and designing our hands-on future careers.
Our collective grew from a series of collaborations with local community interest company The Community Brain. After being introduced to the organisation during our time as students, we have since continued to work closely together on a range of community-led projects that revolve around inclusivity and play. For one of our first projects, we converted an abandoned storage shed at the Tolworth Main Allotments into the Farm of Futures. This ongoing project is forming into a sustainable community hub which supports the growth of local ideas as well as food, promotes cross-generational skill sharing, educates on aquaponics and encourages the farming of waste into upcycled products and materials. It is now also our headquarters.
As a practice, we strive for projects that empower our clients through the same design process from which we grew ourselves. We design around people, and their access to nature, light and touch; we dream about healthy architecture and healthy design at all scales. To date this has included buildings that specialise in helping people recover from cancer, housing that improves the connection of a home’s kitchen with its garden, or simple urban interventions such as the beelines way that better connect a community with its neighbours and surrounding areas.
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Whether it is about making prototypes of a design at its final size to test specific tectonic and aesthetic qualities, or whether it is about building an art installation, or repairing elements of an existing building. Our name derives from our interest in working within the 1:1 scale.
“Let’s have a one to one” - two people talking directly, often to teach or share information. We truly cherish this when working with our clients, partners, collaborators, and amongst individuals within the collective.
TRUSTED COLLABORATORS & CLIENTS
