ess is a an architectural 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 and natural and non physical such as culture, society, language and space.  The buildings we create, 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.