Practice name: Macro Micro Architects

Based: Hammersmith, west London

Founded: The practice became a  limited company in July 2025

Main people: Myself, Sebastian Elliott. Ernest Klinicki then came on board as a Part 1 architect, initially through work experience. Within a week he made himself invaluable by producing the physical models that brought a new dimension to our projects.

More recently, Ben Lindsey has joined, also as a Part 1, and we’re delighted to have him. Arabella Dawson supports the practice as our freelance practice manager. We’re actively looking for an experienced architect to help manage our growing workload and help mentor a talented young team.

Where have you come from?
I founded the practice after a deep dive into mass timber construction on the Canadian West Coast. Established to advocate for more sustainable building methods in the UK, the practice grew from a sole practitioner upon my return to the UK.

I trained in the UK at Brighton (Parts 1 and 2) then at Westminster (Part 3). After qualifying, I headed to Canada to climb mountains, back-country ski, and test my cycling legs on the many coast-to-peak routes.

The opportunities from an upbeat economy and a smaller talent pool than London provided some excellent training opportunities.First, at HCMA which helped me land in the country. Then at Patkau Architects, where I was fortunate enough to be included on the team for the 14-story Academic Wood Tower and grow into project architect for the Arbour House.

I rounded off my Canadian experience with Michael Green Architects and grew into an associate role working on several large-scale heritage retrofit mixed use projects, including the Scott Building and Parkway Building in Victoria. What was intended as a year abroad ended up as seven.

However, the road to qualifying as an architect in Canada was limited at the time. This was before the bilateral agreement between the ARB and the Canadian equivalent [in 2025]. I was advised I’d need to return to university for four years, and pay the equivalent fees to qualify as a Canadian architect. We’re not lacking years of education already in this field. It got to the point in practice where I wanted to choose the projects I worked on and advocate for my values on a wider scale.

What work do you have and what kind of projects are you looking for?
The soft launch returning from Canada consisted of renovating my flat in Stratford on a six-week schedule. This involved employing a day-rate chippy – who had a tattoo of the Monopoly Man holding Uzis on his neck – and a labourer who would half-heartedly help carry plywood sheets up the five floors.

My photographer friend Ed Dabney provided some professional quality photos. Then paid a marketing team to generate leads based on a single, finished apartment project.

We started on local private residential projects as a simple route to market where we could test some design and detailing knowledge. Only having worked on one multi-award-winning house before in this sector, the caliber of contractor for budget extensions made for an enormous learning curve. It turns out day-rate labourers aren’t motivated by architectural finesse. However, each budget project resulted in at least one recommendation.

Competitions are like drawing a full concept on a lottery ticket

I tend to steer away from open competitions as our perceived value as architects drops each time we work for free. It’s like drawing a full concept on a lottery ticket. We entered one competition when we started, I thought I would be twiddling my thumbs in the first months.

It allowed us time to research CLT production in the UK and Europe. Although we didn’t hear anything back from the competition. My numbers didn’t come up. However, we entered the Museum of Architecture bonsai treehouse exhibition as a great effort in promoting practice, architecture generally and a way of building relationships within the profession. This has allowed us freedom to work on our conceptual side and research areas of interest in a mutually helpful approach.

Macro Micro bonsai treehouse 2026

Source: Luke O’Donovan

We’re now becoming established in our private residential work. We secured a back-to-brick retrofit four-story extension project in Hammersmith, which is currently under construction. The client is a great fit for us – driven and eager to work through big ideas. Securing planning for the Hammersmith project, including an ASHP on a conservation area roof, has brought us some attention and now we’ve got several retrofit and extension projects in the pipelines.

We’ve also started our first development project: a mixed-use development on an old pub car park in Merton. We have one small project in the South of France and have assisted on a health spa in British Columbia.

What are your ambitions?
I want to grow a studio atmosphere, so a team of four to six people to foster a creative and engaging workplace. I intend to promote timber and stone structures, which possess a rich cultural heritage, holistic benefits and are more sustainable than concrete and steel.

I’ll be promoting timber and stone structures

As a French national, born in Japan with two Canadian daughters — I feel very at home in London. However, I maintain professional ties with both Europe and North America.

While my kids are young, the local private residential projects allow me to be present, and even bring them to the construction sites. Hopefully they will forgive me one day for stripping out their nursery friend’s house – all the toys were gone.

I would like to be recognised for bringing closer ties within the profession itself and creating compelling low-embodied-carbon designs.

We have started this by bringing together a group of start-up practices. Even celebrating a joint Christmas party together in December 2025. Plus educating ourselves on stone bricks, structural stone, and replacing steel where possible with timber alternatives. Promoting the values of timber over cavity wall in particular in the private residential sector.

What are the biggest challenges facing yourself as a start-up and the profession generally? 
The biggest challenge has been finding good contacts, such as trusted contractors. I’d spent so long outside the UK that most of my existing contacts had moved on when I returned. It’s an ongoing push to build those relationships and form that trust both on the consultant and contractor side.

AI has been instrumental for us – we’ve built our own fee proposal generator

Generally, I hear a pretty dreary take on our profession from medium to large-scale practices. Small practices are uniquely positioned right now with the rise of AI. It has been instrumental for us. We could build our systems around this new technology without having to negotiate the relics of established systems.

For example, we’ve built our own practice management platform, including an app. This started as a simpler way of tracking our time and has advanced into a project management, fee proposal generator and resource planner.

Private residential work tends to be uncoupled from the wider economy. Clients will build when the time is right in their lives, not when development mortgage rates risk increasing. We also have been fortunate to find a developer who is expanding from permitted development to develop one of their car parks adjacent to a pub.

What advice would you give to anybody else at the start of their career (including Part 1s and Part 2s) and those wanting to set up their own practice?
Lean into new technology. It’s a way of offering up new skills to established practices and quickly make yourself invaluable. Also don’t put up with the old guard treating you badly.

There are always options for you. I’ve seen young graduates mistreated in practice who count themselves lucky to have a job in architecture. We as directors should count ourselves lucky to have the young talent at our disposal.

Don’t put up with the old guard treating you badly

If you want to set up your own practice, I can’t imagine a more engaging time to set up shop. It also provides the opportunity to branch out the definition of architecture. For instance, working into more profitable parts of the industry, like setting up project deals or working on the development side. As a profession, we need to take risks to move into more profitable project areas. Not just design.

How are you using any new design techniques, such as AI?
We primarily use AI for organisation and system development. For example building our own in-house platform for time keeping, resourcing, project management and fee proposals. This has saved us on the small subscriptions which I never felt were tailored enough to how we operate. It’s an amusing side project, which we can improve regularly by feeding voice notes directly into Claude code.

I see a lot of AI visuals and few people do it well. It takes time and effort. We use Nano Banana for some studies, but have leant more into graphics which differentiate us, rather than quick wins. Our best output is slowly considered along with our clients, like a story whose character builds as it develops. So we work equally with physical models and sketches, as with AI in a new wave form of collage – which takes a lot of Photoshopping to get right.

Retrofit project at 81 Ravenscourt Road, London by Macro Micro Architects

Which scheme, completed in the last five years, has inspired you most?
I’m a fan of Oliver Leech’s Poet’s Corner House. The way the project provides material intrigue with such crisp details. Plus the photography blends an incredibly homely, human and inhabited touch while working with grander architectural concepts of light, texture and tone.

As a second project, Shigeru Ban’s timber skeleton Tamedia building is an exceptional take on joinery on a larger scale.

How are you marketing yourselves?
By doing the best work we’re capable of and building relationships with planning consultants. Occasional Instagram and LinkedIn posts. Our early projects are finishing up now and we’re looking forward to the photoshoot and potential publications.

Website address: www.macromicro-architects.co.uk