Owen and Vokes

Owen and Vokes aim to craft a practice of architecture. The practice seeks appropriateness rather than novelty with each work taking the form of a subtle innovation; incrementally building upon a lineage of works. Completed projects are custodians of ideas drawn from a sustained observation of traditions, appropriate exemplars, and human occupation.

Buildings ought to endure. Owen and Vokes aspire to the humble austerity of the ruin with its profound absence of fashionable affectation. By exercising restraint a building retains only its essential qualities. The most potent forms of enclosure remain.

The practice draws upon a select palette of materials. In limiting the number of materials present in a building, each constituent element is better able to assert itself within the composition. Colour and tactility are accentuated and reinforced through juxtaposition. Traditional building elements such as brick, timber and stone are favored.

Preferred patterns in plan seek to idealise the presence of nature in the midst of an increasingly populous and urbanised field.