Archicraft Studio

We designed and built our own studio, and it works the same way our architecture does. Open, thoughtful, and built from natural materials rather than anything applied on top of them.

The space had a lot in it that we did not need, so we started by taking things away. We scratched back the ceilings, pulled up the old tiles and sanded the concrete floor down to something honest and a little rough. What was left underneath became the finish, not a surface to cover up.

A steel framed glass partition splits the entrance area from the studio floor, so the front of house stays open to the street while the working space behind it feels more contained. Heavy curtains hang alongside the glass, giving us a way to close the room off or open it up depending on what the day calls for.

Everything we added back in is plywood. Desks, the reception counter, storage walls, all cut and finished in the same material so the studio reads as one continuous piece rather than a collection of separate furniture. A backlit archicraft sign sits on the plywood reception desk, next to a bicycle parked right where you walk in, which is about as accurate a picture of how the team actually gets to work as we could ask for.

A wall of climbing plants runs up one side of the lounge area, and large flower pots sit throughout the studio, softening the concrete and block walls without hiding them. Between the plywood, the plants and the exposed structure, the studio ended up feeling closer to a workshop than a conventional office, which was really the point.

It is a small project by our own standards, but it is also the one we know best, since we are the ones who use it every day. Building it the way we build for clients, cutting back to what matters and trusting the raw materials to carry the space, told us more about our own approach than any brief ever could.