Contact

Tell us about your site, your budget and what you want to build. We reply within a week, usually with a first section sketch and a question we could not answer from the map.

1:1 direct

write to us

studio@ostwerk.example

Read every morning by a named architect, not a shared inbox. We reply within a week, usually with a question rather than a proposal.

or call the studio

01632 960 118

One handset on the model bench. If it rings out we are on site, and the answering machine is checked at the end of the day.

by post - drawings welcome

Ostwerk Architecture
Sheet Works, third floor
9 Kessel Wharf
Easting Reach

studio hours

Monday to Thursday: 09:00 - 17:30
Friday: 09:00 - 13:00
Saturday, Sunday: closed

we do not answer email at weekends either - it keeps monday honest

(4) what to put in the first email

Four things, and we can cut a section

None of this commits you to anything. If we are the wrong studio for the project we will say so in the reply and, where we can, name someone better suited.

The address, or a pin: Everything we can find out for ourselves - plot boundaries, orientation, what is next door, whether it is listed - we will find out before we reply.
What you want to build: Two sentences is enough. We do not need a schedule of accommodation; if you have one we will read it, but it is not the thing that decides the section.
The budget you actually have: Not the budget you think we want to hear. A number we can plan against is worth more to you than a big number we later have to design away from.
The constraint you believe is fixed: A tree, a party wall, a water table, a completion date, a relative moving in. This is the one that most often turns out to be the project, and it is the one clients most often leave out.

photographs of the site taken on a phone are more useful than a survey at this stage - we want to see what you see when you stand there

1:500 site plan - finding the door

sheet works and the yard, from above - the copper stroke is the door that opens

On foot: Nine minutes from Easting Reach station, along the water and left at the crane.
By car: Two spaces in the yard. Tell us beforehand and one will have a cone on it.
The way in: The yard door on the east side. The street door is a fire exit and has no handle on the outside.
Third floor: There is no lift. Say the word and we will meet you in the yard instead - there is a table down there and it is a better table.