All aspects of life need to be considered and carefully woven together to make an architectural project where life will thrive.
Meshworks LLP
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​Since setting up in 2016, we have been developing our thoughtful, practical and human-centered approach to design across a wide range of projects.
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We are serious about our responsibility towards the environment and will help you create a project that is stylish, environmentally sound and personal to you.
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Meshworks is run by Rafaela Taylor and Joshua Taylor. We are based in Edinburgh and Cornwall and work on projects across the UK - in person and remotely.
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Our name, Meshworks, is a reference to the work of Tim Ingold, an anthropologist at the University of Aberdeen who writes about interconnectedness.
The word acts as a reminder to us that for any architectural project to flourish all aspects of life need to be considered and carefully woven together.
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Rafaela
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I get excited by places that are full of life, texture, and that tell a story about the people who live there!
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I’m an artist and architectural designer – splitting my time between Meshworks, painting and slowly restoring a beautiful Georgian flat in Edinburgh.
I tend to specialise in the earlier stages of our projects – tuning into our clients' personalities, values and circumstances before finding creative ways of meeting their requirements.
I know that it's not always easy to interpret a plan or imagine a new space so I have honed a way of visualising our ideas in a friendly and helpful way.
Joshua
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I have a broad knowledge of materials and building techniques, both modern and historical, with a particular interest in using traditional, ecologically sound materials in a contemporary way.
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I think low-tech approaches and hand tools have a lot to teach us. Architects are sometimes considered paper tigers, with no practical experience. I think the old idea of the master builder still has value, so I try techniques myself to understand them better.
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Designing details (how materials fit together, whether for a ridge-beam or a doorhandle) and how to achieve the feeling we are looking for within a limited budget are two of my specialities. Previous projects have used lime plaster, milk paint, self-made timber and wool-felt windows.
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I'm currently living in a Cornish village, practising what I preach about sociability, pragmatism and architecture by building a house with my parents, brothers and extended family.
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background
We met as undergraduate students at the University of Sheffield before going on to complete our architectural qualifications together at the Laboratory of Immediate Architectural Intervention at Umeå, northern Sweden. We were awarded distinctions for our theses "Knowing the Neighbours: Post-Growth Umeå" and "Eating Disorder? Re-thinking the relationship between food & architecture in Umeå".
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On our return to the UK we were approached by the Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative for help with an ambitious project that required an unconventional and progressive way of working. This exciting project led us to set up Meshworks in the hope we could do something good in the UK's architectural landscape.
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We both have a wide range of interests - psychology, the physics of buildings, art, craft, history and sustainability.
camoufleur
Joshua, frustrated by the difficulty of finding interesting trousers, is also working on launching "Camoufleur" in 2021, a sustainable menswear company which will hand-make clothes in Cornwall from British fabrics. It turns out that our architectural convictions are surprisingly close to what we want to see in clothes!
We enjoy exploring ideas with hand drawing, seeing the computer as a tool among many rather than the first resort. We find it's easier to have valuable design discussions when everyone feels able to sketch together, rather than seeing a very crisp digital drawing that looks finished already!