ess

studio

ess is an architectural and interior design studio located in Sydney.  We are a small group of designers with a diverse range of skills that work on a limited number of projects at a time. Our work focuses on creating meaningful and thoughtful experiences for the people that use the buildings we design. By doing this we believe we can use design and buildings to add value to peoples lives.  

People 

We create buildings for people, people are the most important aspect to the design of a building.  We start every project with understanding who the building is for.  If we understand this then we are close to understanding what the building should be.

Place 

Place is the world we live in, it includes the built, natural and non physical such as culture, society, language and space.  The buildings we make, create the place we live in and the place we live in informs the way we live.  Buildings should support and enhance the lifestyles we live.    

Experience 

We design experiences for people through the buildings we create.  What a building feels like is more important than what it looks like.  We want to create experiences that make life easier, more meaningful and enjoyable and we want to create buildings that improve the lives of the people that use them.  

Environment 

Buildings are created from nature and are part of nature, we believe that design needs to understand this. Our philosophy is to create quality experiences while using the least resources possible.  To do this we need to understand what is critical by excluding what is not.  This is a fundamental principal of nature and is the environmental approach to design of each building we create.

Alex

I grew up on the east coast of Tasmania, spending time in nature with family and friends which gave me a love for design and the impact and role it plays in peoples lives and in nature. 

The first question I ask our clients is how do you want to feel when in a space or when using a space. I think the two fundamental aspects of architecture are the user experience and the functionality of a space or building.  When space provides an experience it makes you feel something, when a space is functional it is simple and easy to use.

Architecture is often described with how it looks, for me iit is how it makes you feel.

My thinking is to continually try to better understand people and the world they interact in.  The combination of these two things for me is architecture. 

Robert

I was born in New Zealand and moved to the coast of new south wales in Australia at a young age.  This was the beginning of a lifelong journey of exploring the world that would take me to Africa, Europe, Asia, South America and the pacific.    

Experiencing diverse cultures, landscapes and streets allowed me a unique perspective on the diversity of how people live.  I think this was the beginning of a thought process of needing to ask questions and understanding that certain questions provide different outcomes.  I think it is important that we question what we do and how we do it.  This critical thinking is important to the creations we make and the value they contribute to the world we live in.  

Life is simple, for me it is sharing my passions of music, photography, surfing and food with the people I love.  For me architecture is both the built expression of these things and the vehicle of sharing them with others.  

studio 24/13-29 Nichols street, Surry Hills, Sydney

Alex Phegan
alexp@esslifestyle.com
(+61) 414 08 5001

Robert Woodward
robw@esslifestyle.com
(+61) 405 000 913

@esslifestyle