Twelve people. One studio.
Aster was founded by Ines Aster and Rowan Vale in 2004 and has stayed deliberately small. Twenty-two years, forty-one commissions, and the same room on Great Sutton Street for nineteen of them.
A first floor in Clerkenwell, and a north light.
One long room over a former printworks, with the models on the shelves and the drawings on the walls. Everyone sits in it, including both principals, which is the single most useful thing about the arrangement.
We still draw by hand at the start of a project and we still make cardboard models. Not out of nostalgia — a hand section forces a decision about a junction that a screen lets you defer.
Visitors are welcome by appointment. There is usually something on the table worth looking at, and the coffee is from the place downstairs.
41
Commissions completed
17
Listed buildings consented
9
RIBA regional awards
12
People in the studio
Who is here.
Twelve of us. Six are listed; the others are architectural assistants, a Part 1 and the person who keeps the practice running.
Four things we hold to.
Not values on a wall. Four operating constraints that decide what we can and cannot take on.
01
A principal on every project
Ines or Rowan is the architect on your job from the first survey to the last site visit. Not a name on the proposal — the person who answers the phone.
02
Twelve commissions a year
The number is arithmetic, not marketing: twelve is what twelve people can do at this level of drawing without any of it being delegated outward.
03
We say no more than yes
Usually because the year is committed. Occasionally because we are not the right practice, and we would rather say that in week one than month nine.
04
Drawn here, all of it
No sub-consulted design and no delivery architect. Every drawing that leaves this office was made in it.
Where to check us.
The studio.
41 Great Sutton Street
Clerkenwell
London EC1V 0DX
+44 20 7550 8400
studio@asterarchitects.co.uk
Mon–Thu, 9.30–18.00
Ines takes calls on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
Request a consultation