Modernism with heart

Studio

Charles Barclay is known for designing modernist-minimalist architecture that is bold, atmospheric and creates a strong sense of place: ‘modernism with heart’. He and his team of architects have built a portfolio of elegant top-end residential projects in London and across the UK, underpinned by inventive and progressive designs for schools and other public arenas.


Charles honed his design skills working in New York and for American architects in London and does not feel constrained by the cultural mores of either old or new worlds; he identifies and develops the essence of a project, the strong design idea that makes it special. He works personally with each and every one of his clients to create projects that are both architecturally accomplished and deeply personal to those who have commissioned the work and will occupy it. Architectural excellence, he believes, can only emerge from a genuine design conversation between the client and their architect.


The office collaborate closely with a select group of consultants and specialist builders to ensure the design is delivered, uncompromised, to the last detail, within cost constraints and with the minimum of fuss.

Our work has been featured in the following publications:

  • 100 Contemporary Green Buildings
  • Abitare
  • Architecture & Culture
  • The Architects’ Journal
  • The Architects’ Journal Specification
  • Architecture 09 RIBA Buildings of the year
  • Architecture Today
  • Building Design
  • C3
  • Casabella
  • Country Life
  • DB Deutsche Bauzeitung
  • Detail Magazine
  • Ecologik
  • Evening Standard
  • Grand Designs
  • Homebuilding & Renovating
  • House & Garden
  • Icon
  • Inhabit Architecture Today
  • Interior Details
  • New Architecture 2, The Architecture Foundation
  • Progetto Legno
  • Riba Interiors
  • Uptown Magazine
  • Sequences Bois, Insertion dans la nature
  • Sublime
  • The Sunday Times
  • Wallpaper
  • WOODE
  • The Worlds of Interiors
  • XXI

Competitions

  • 2011 runners-up, Room for London competition organised by Living Architecture.
  • 2010 winners of design competition, Café on Windrush Square, Brixton.
  • 2008 Kielder Observatory short-listed in Nature category, World Architecture Festival, Barcelona.
  • 2005 winners of RIBA open competition, Kielder Observatory, Northumberland.
  • 2005 runners up, CABE Anglo-French housing competition at Melun-Senart, Paris with Atela Architects.
  • 2002 commended, Urban Sustainability Competition at Lochend, Edinburgh.
  • 2001 runners up EUROPAN 6 for housing in Southwark.

Awards

  • 2013: RIBA Eastern Region Award, Walk Barn Farm.
  • 2009: Galvanising Award, Kielder Observatory.
  • 2009: Hadrian Award, Kielder Observatory.
  • 2009: Civic Trust Award, Kielder Observatory.
  • 2009: RIBA National Award, Kielder Observatory.
  • 2008: Timber in Construction Award, Kielder Observatory.

Exhibitions

  • 2013: Kielder Observatory exhibited Architecture of Necessity, Virserum Konsthall, Sweden.
  • 2010: Summer Exhibition, exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts London
  • 2009: Open House London, The Look Out in Islington, featured
  • 2007: Open House London, Eco Funnel in Holloway, featured
  • 2006: Kielder Observatory, exhibition in Hexham, Northumberland
  • 2005: Open House London, Double Cottage in Wandsworth, featured
  • 2001: Make your case, exhibition at the Architecture Foundation, Lond
  • 2001: EUROPAN 6, In Between Cities exhibition at the Architectural Association, Bedford Square, London
  • 2001: Minimal Existence, exhibition at Isokon Flats, Highgate, London
  • 1998: Architecture Foundation Roadshow, Hammersmith and Fulham