Studio

O’Brien Van der Steen Workshops is an award-winning architecture, urbanism and design studio based in the UK and Mexico, founded by James O’Brien and Joseph Van der Steen in 2015. The studio’s work ranges from bespoke furniture and residential projects of all scales to large-scale urban and community projects such as the phased redevelopment of large parts of The Rustaveli Theatre, National Theatre of Georgia, a new community recycling and re-use centre for Proper Job CIO on Dartmoor and the development plan for the delegación of Iztacalco in Mexico City.

With offices in Devon (Chagford) and Mexico City, we specialises in working in urban and rural contexts of historic and cultural importance, making sensitive incisions into complex and challenging places and landscapes by working closely with local authorities to achieve high quality buildings and places.

Our work is underpinned by a keen interest in how things are made and by a construction rationality in which materials and systems are explored to best suit the given needs of a project and place. We take a specific and empathetic approach to the places in which we work, and the people and landscapes that form them. We are constantly interested in the idea of community and of neighbourhood and their importance in architecture and planning as we address pressing environmental, ecological and social challenges.

As a studio, we are also committed to the ecological and social sustainability of all of our projects and work closely with a range of consultants to develop projects that positively address these concerns in both their execution and their use, along the way challenging and promoting how architectural and urban projects can shape environmentally and socially resilient places to live and work.

O’Brien Van der Steen Workshops is an RIBA Chartered Practice.

Devon

Our Devon studio is based in the centre of the bustling stannary town of Chagford on the northern edge of Dartmoor, within the Dartmoor National Park.

Our Devon studio is based in the centre of the bustling stannary town of Chagford on the northern edge of Dartmoor, within the Dartmoor National Park. All our projects in the south west are run from the Chagford studio and we pride ourselves in offering a bespoke service in this beautiful yet challenging context. The studio specialises in complex planning contexts and working with existing, historic and protected buildings and landscapes. We have built a close working relationship with a variety of local landscape designers who form an integral part of our approach to thinking about building within a rural environment.

The Devon studio is run by Joseph and he is joined by a team of qualified architects and chartered surveyors and assistants. Joseph’s father, Allen, who ran his own practice in Devon for over 30 years acts as a consultant to the studio specialising in listed and historic buildings and planning policy.

Mexico

Our studio in Mexico City is located in the colonia Juarez, close to the historic centre of the city and the principle Avenida Reforma.

Our studio in Mexico City is located in the colonia Juarez, close to the historic centre of the city and the principle Avenida Reforma and is shared with taller de arquitectura sbh, with whom we collaborate on various projects we undertake in Mexico. The studio operates under the shared name of Atelier O’BVdS + SBH. Atelier is spread over a single level of a 20th Century 5 storey, ex-residential building in which other architectural and design studios are located. The old apartment layout, altered slightly but effectively the same, means that alongside the principle studio space in which we all work, sharing knowledge, information, ideas and experience, there are a series of rooms that are dedicated to model-making and to collective project review. The studio undertakes projects of all scales and types from single family dwellings to larger scale commercial and urban projects.

The studio in Mexico City is run by James, with the diverse team of architects, assistants, model-makers and renders who make up our studio.