Our Projects
The studio

We design for how you live.

DE Architects is an architecture and interior design studio. We work on houses, interiors, workspaces and buildings that deserve another life — and we start every one of them the same way, by watching how a place is actually used.

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Our story

Sixteen years of
starting with the brief.

The studio began in 2009 with one house and a conviction that has not changed since: a building should be shaped by the life inside it, not the other way round. That first client wanted somewhere to cook, read and have people over — so we designed around a kitchen and let the rest follow.

We have grown since, into interiors, workspaces and restoration, but the method is the same. We spend the first weeks listening, measuring, and watching where the light lands. The drawing comes after.

Today the practice works on everything from a single reimagined room to a whole building brought back into use. No project is too small if the thinking is worth doing.

Inside the DE Architects studio
A model on a drafting table
since 2009
How we work

Four stages,
and no surprises.

Every project runs the same way. You always know which stage you are in, what is being decided, and what it costs before it starts.

  1. 01

    Listen

    We visit, measure and talk — about routine, not style. What time you eat, where you work, which room nobody uses. The brief comes out of that conversation.

  2. 02

    Draw

    Sketches, plans and a physical model. You see options in three dimensions before anything is fixed, and we expect to throw the first one away.

  3. 03

    Resolve

    Materials, joinery, light and detail, plus the permissions and costings. This is the longest stage and the one that decides whether the building works.

  4. 04

    Build

    We stay on site until the keys change hands. The people who drew it are the people who see it finished.

What we believe

Light before finish

Where the sun falls decides a plan. Materials are chosen afterwards, to suit the light a room actually gets.

Build less, better

The cheapest and greenest square metre is the one you do not build. We would rather rework what exists than add to it.

Detail is not decoration

A junction that is thought through disappears. Most of what we draw is meant never to be noticed.

One team throughout

No handover to a delivery office. The people at the first meeting are on site at the last.

The people

The people
behind the drawings.

AK

Aisha Karim

Founding partner

Started the studio in 2009. Leads the residential work and still draws every house herself.

DM

Daniel Meyer

Partner, commercial

Joined in 2013. Runs the workspace and restoration projects, and everything with a structural argument in it.

PN

Priya Nair

Head of interiors

Materials, joinery and light. If a room feels right when you walk in, it is usually her doing.

TA

Tomas Alvarez

Associate, visualisation

Builds the 3D walkthroughs, so clients can stand in a room a year before it exists.

Recognition
  • 2024House of the Year, shortlistRiverside House
  • 2024Interior Award, winnerHarbour Penthouse
  • 2023Workplace Design, commendedStudio North
  • 2022Restoration Prize, winnerThe Warehouse
  • 2021Small Project Award, winnerSlate Kitchen

Tell us how you
want to live.

Every project starts with a conversation. There is no charge for the first one.

Start a project See our work