We Design Homes features in Monocle
We were delighted to be featured by prestigious lifestyle magazine, Monocle, in their weekly ‘Minute on Design’ newsletter written by editor-in-chief Andrew Tuck. The feature highlights the work we are doing to help homeowners navigate the architectural market and provide easy access to the best design-led architects from across the country.
The weekly Wednesday newsletter Monocle Minute on Design provides a well-appointed briefing on the latest news in the world of design. It provides industry insights and considered reporting from across the globe, offering a unique and informed view on design through Monocle’s international network of editors, correspondents and photographers.
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Here’s a little out-take:
Opinion / Andrew Tuck - Intelligent designs
How does a would-be client find an architect to reimagine their apartment, add an extension or even build them a new house from scratch? And how does a young architecture practice not lose endless days fielding enquiries from people who have little understanding of what any of the above might entail. The spot between hesitant client and overworked architect is where friends and now side-hustle colleagues Dean McCauley-Bové and Christopher Moore are building a consultancy that aims to ease the stresses for all involved.
McCauley-Bove, a communications consultant for architecture businesses, and Moore, an architectural writer and built-environment specialist, founded We Design Homes in September 2020. Their website and Instagram account present project portfolios from practices that they like in the UK and Ireland. The site's founders have a distinctive and demanding eye. The projects showcased tend to feature simple materials used well, clean lines, a contemporary outlook - it's all very tight. The architects on the site are from what McCauley-Bove describes as "design-led practices". Currently there are about 150 represented: some fledgling, others well established.
While the site is fun for just checking out what people are building, the two men want to do something more by encouraging would-be commissioners who like what they see to contact them rather than bombarding the companies that they are championing. "This way we can help the client develop a proper brief and then contact the best architects for their job," says McCauley-Bové. "This takes time but it means that they come across as serious clients and it also separates the initial interaction from small practices."
