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. In stripping away distractions a building retains only its essential qualities. The most potent forms of enclosure remain. Architecture intervenes only to moderate and idealise: tempering the influx of light; editing the outlook; substituting circulation for promenade.

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 favoured.

Each work aspires to the charming quality belonging to a building that successfully embodies its distinctive landscape setting. Light, air, sound, and foliage are encouraged to permeate the interior and embellish occupant’s lives with a profound connection to their natural surroundings in the midst of an increasingly populous and urbanised suburbia.

presented at Special Event