[Y/N] Studio is a creative platform established by architect Alex Smith to ask questions of the built environment. The complexity associated with designing and constructing our cities is astounding and a great deal of architecture serves only to ADD complexity. We think the role of the designer is to question these established but convoluted processes and to REDUCE complexity. We work with the various inputs, histories, technologies and constraints with which we are presented to formulate a response rather than imposing an abstract theology, manifesto or style. We, as architects, are editors of the process. The questions, and the problems, can be incredibly complex, but a successful answer should be as simple as YES or NO. Since forming as a company in January 2017, we have been working on a diverse range of commissions, from carefully detailed small-scale extensions to 100+ multi-unit housing schemes, a large workspace in Dalston, and a mixed-use tower in South London. Recently we won a competition for 4 holiday homes in Greatsone-on-Sea, which are designed as a continuous spiral of floorplates to maximise sea views and reduce circulation space. In 2018 we will start on-site with at least 4 projects most notably the extension and refurbishment of the Bradbury Street workspaces which face onto Gillett Square in Hackney. This will include around 1500m2 of work space, a temporary deck for the duration of construction which can be used by local communities providing active frontage on all sides of the square for the first time in it’s history. The people who work with us are talented and ambitious with backgrounds working in London, Switzerland and Copenhagen for Internationally recognised practices.
