Residential & cultural work · Enquiries for 2027 open
Residential · Cultural · Adaptive reuse

Buildings that don't announce themselves.

A twelve-person studio working on houses, small cultural buildings and adaptive reuse. Restraint by disposition: the aim is a building that looks inevitable rather than one that looks designed.

Hands and model, architecture
Services

What we take on

Roughly eight projects at a time. We are not the cheapest and we are honest about that early.

01

Private houses

New build and substantial renovation. Typically construction budgets from $900k, where the site or the brief has genuine difficulty in it.

02

Adaptive reuse

Industrial, agricultural and civic buildings given a second life. The constraint is the interesting part and usually the reason it works.

03

Cultural & civic

Small galleries, libraries and community buildings, including competition work and public procurement.

04

Feasibility & pre-design

Before you buy a site or commit to a scheme. A short, paid piece of work that regularly saves people a great deal.

Results

“We interviewed five practices. Ansel were the only ones who asked what we were afraid of rather than what we wanted. The house we ended up with is nothing like what we described and exactly what we needed.”

Ingrid & Tomas H. Private house, coastal site
Process

How a commission runs

Five stages, and we stay through the last one, which is where most of the risk actually sits.

  1. 01

    Feasibility

    A short paid study: what the site allows, what it will cost, and whether the idea survives contact with reality.

  2. 02

    Concept

    Two or three genuinely different directions rather than one refined proposal. You choose a direction, not a drawing.

  3. 03

    Developed design

    Resolved with engineers and costed properly. Permitting runs from here, and we handle it.

  4. 04

    Construction

    Tender, contractor selection and site administration through to completion. We do not hand over drawings and disappear.

Built work

Buildings that don't announce themselves.

Six projects, photographed once each and left alone. The thinking is on the drawings; this is what it built.

The built work
The built work
Concrete meets oak
Concrete meets oak
The stair
The stair
Samples on the table
Samples on the table
Study model, third iteration
Study model, third iteration
Under construction
Under construction

Have a site, or a building you don't know what to do with?

A first conversation is free and often clarifies more than people expect. If it isn't a project for us we will say so and suggest who it is for.

Or leave your details and we'll call you back.

Enquiries for 2027 now open. Feasibility studies available as standalone work.

Discuss a project(564) 315-6683