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INSIGHTS
PRACTICE PROFILE MorenoMasey M
orenoMasey was created on the back of one of life’s “too good to pass up” opportunities, says founder and studio principal, Rodrigo Moreno Masey. He was working at architects Michaelis Boyd when he was introduced to a developer, via one of his wife’s friends. Rod was offered the chance to work on his own project comprising four apartments and a duplex penthouse in Trafalgar Square.
Rod was given time by the partners to work on the development, and on the back of this high-profile project, he launched MorenoMasey. Within a short space of time, the firm had grown to a size that was significantly larger than he had imagined.
Simplifying the structure At its peak, four years ago, the practice boasted 22 members of staff. In a move unrelated to Covid, although accelerated by the pandemic, they began to adopt a different strategy in terms of how the business was structured.
Rodrigo soon found that in order to deliver the projects at the rate required, more and more layers of management were being introduced. However, the outcome was that each layer took the most talented and trusted people one step further away from designing projects. “So in the end,” says Rod, “the people doing the work on the ground were the least experienced and the least embedded within the culture of our practice.” The new structure was essentially to turn the business setup on its head, so that the architects are as close as possible to the projects. The practice is now organised around the idea of a ‘pool’ of specialists which the practice can dip into, according to the project involved. They regularly work with outside consultants – including for heritage, planning and visualisation, on a semi-retainer basis. “Having such a big pool can really accelerate the initial advice given at the briefing stage, as the information is based on proper knowledge, rather than speculation,” says Rod. The practice has adopted an open and collaborative way of designing the projects, and aims to involve everyone that wants to attend, from junior to senior architect level. Bringing the whole creative team to the table early, and agreeing goals and roles, means that clarity is achieved.
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Rodrigo Moreno Masey © Richard Lewisohn
El Salvador-born Rodrigo Moreno Masey saw an opportunity to set up his own London practice 12 years ago, and hasn’t looked back. He tells ADF’s Laura Shadwell why keeping it simple is the key to success
HIGH-END IN HOLLAND PARK
The studio was given a brief to create an “extraordinary” home in west London © Julian Abrahams
Commissions currently divide roughly into 30% in hospitality and 70% in the residential sector. The studio has and continues to work with a range of restaurant brands, Nando’s being one. Residential sector work ranges from one-off bespoke houses to multi unit, mixed use or regeneration schemes.
Flexible problem solvers The practice’s ethos is also simple. Rather than specialising in a certain type of project or having a fixed aesthetic, MorenoMasey position themselves as “problem solvers,” and “curators of the client’s vision.” The designers instead focus on “extracting and distilling” each project’s unique set of opportunities and challenges from the client, in order to inform designs, says Rod. They aim to
ADF NOVEMBER 2022
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