Ash Sakula is a thought-leading architectural studio, based in central London. We specialise in working with challenging sites and complex briefs, where our fresh thinking and inventive design can most benefit our clients and those who use the places we make. Our award-winning work has been widely published, both in the UK and abroad.
“Ash Sakula is a rare commodity — a charming, disarming practice of dedicated professionals who make you feel reinvigorated in their presence. Good designs coupled with challenging ideas, creative engagement, and infectious enthusiasm all add up to a pleasurable and rewarding working relationship… and they do very nice architecture too.”
Austin Williams, Director, Future Cities Project
“For creative projects you need creative architects, and they don't come more creative than Ash Sakula."
Tom Dyckhoff, The Times
"An attuned and confident craftsmanship matched by few British architects."
Rory Olcayto, Architect's Journal
“Ash Sakula is a creatively brilliant architecture practice, designing buildings and places full of incident and reasons for sociability, that delight the communities that inhabit them.”
Chris Brown, Igloo Regeneration
Tucked into an old London mews, the Ash Sakula Studio opens up like a box of tricks, embodying our ethos of transformation. Originally a stable, later a printworks, then a working garage, and now our architectural studio, the space itself is a layered story of imaginative reuse. It’s a place to conjure architecture—a workshop for pioneering, agile, and energetic ideas.
Like the studio itself, our work is crafted with curiosity and adaptability, unfolding at every scale: from hand-drawn sketches to moving digital landscapes, from single-home retrofits to entire regenerative neighbourhoods. Ash Sakula is a space of transformation, creating places where people feel connected, inspired, and grounded in resilience and intrigue.
Cany Ash, Co-Founder
Cany is a thought leader and innovator in neighbourhood design, with expertise built up over decades in urban regeneration. She is recognised for her ability to bring people together be that in co-design or client public-private partnerships underpinned by regenerative systems-thinking approaches. She leads Ash Sakula to be ultra inclusive when designing; mindful of the impact of projects on local economies, people, and their everyday experiences. Cany sees the transformative power of both large and very small projects; zooming in to tactile details and out to regional development without reference to conventional professional silos. She discovered her ‘why’ in New York, helping to instigate 'Green Market', bringing farmers into the city alongside Community Board 12 in the early 1980s.
Robert Sakula, Co-Founder
Robert has four decades’ experience in the interconnected fields of architecture, landscape and urbanism. He combines innovation in architectural form, technique and materials with a deep understanding of the relevance of traditional constructional solutions. Robert likes to draw in front of clients, sharing his design work in real time and benefitting from almost instant feedback loops in these co-design sessions. Alongside his own experience in mixed use regeneration and housing, he is a trusted critic on many design review panels and competition juries. His first years in practice were with the celebrated maverick architect, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, making additions to Portmeirion, his mythical and extraordinarily popular retreat in North Wales.
George Sunderland, Architect
George is an eco-conscious architect, who blends process driven techniques with design. With an eye for detail and cross-discipline collaboration, he ensures every project integrates stakeholder input, achieving net-positive results for all involved. George’s technical expertise turns even the most complex challenges into streamlined, efficient workflows, facilitating the design of spaces that truly benefit communities and individuals alike. He studied at UCA, the AA, and the London School of Architecture, where his thesis focused on the adaptive reuse of some typical high streets, bringing food back into town and releasing superstores for more diverse commerce, sport and culture.
Beth Allen, Associate
Beth is an architectural designer and illustrator dedicated to making human-centered, inclusive spaces. In creative workshops she brings people together to explore architecture's role in enhancing communities. Meshing hand drawing with innovative digital tools, she turns collaborative ideas into vibrant, liveable designs. Beth graduated from the London School of Architecture, where her thesis "Excavating Holloway: Towards a Feminist City" used a unique methodology, retrofitting culturally charged space through hand-stitched textiles. Following her thesis, Beth brings to Ash Sakula an understanding of how engaging spaces can be complex, honouring old stories in new housing.
RIBA Awards for Architecture
The Malings, Ouseburn
Exhibition Mews, Bordon
UK Centre for Carnival Arts, Luton
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
Hothouse, Hackney
House for Art Collector
LCB Depot, Leicester
Sparkenhoe School Theatre
29 Doughty Mews, London
Birdwing Conservatory, London
Housing Design Awards
Jacobs Square, The Phoenix, Lewes - Project
The Malings, Ouseburn - Supreme Award
The Malings, Ouseburn - Project Award
Tibby’s Triangle, Southwold - Completion Award
Tibby's Triangle, Southwold - Project Award
NLA Awards
Wickside, London - Overall Winner
Wickside, London - Mixed Use Winner
Wickside, London - Masterplans and Area Strategies
First Prize Competitions
Whitehill Bordon Competition - Exhibition Mews, Bordon
Sustrans Competition - St. Margaret’s Loop, East Grinstead
Southwold Competition - Adnams’ Victoria Street Site
RIBA Competition - Castle Lane, Bedford
RIBA Competition - Brookes Road High Rise
RIBA Competition - Room to Grow: A child’s space in the 21st-century home
RIBA Competition - Homes for Learning
Peabody Trust Competition - Fresh Ideas for Low Cost Home Ownership
Civic Trust Awards
Hothouse, Hackney
29 Doughty Mews, London
What House? Awards
Exhibition Mews, Bordon - Best Sustainable Development
Tibby’s Triangle, Southwold - Best Brownfield Development
London Planning Awards
Hothouse - Best planned project contributing to London’s future
Hothouse - Mayor’s special award for planning excellence
MIPIM Future Project Award
Wickside, London
St Botolph’s, Colchester
Lord Mayor's Design Awards
The Malings, Ouseburn - Category Winner
RIBA/RSAW Award for Architecture
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
HCA Places for All Award
Castle Quay, Bedford
Hackney Design Award
Hothouse, Hackney
Sustainable Living
Peabody Housing, Silvertown - Best Built Project
EM Award for Architecture
LCB Depot, Leicester
RSA Award for Architecture
Hothouse, Hackney
West Oxfordshire Design Award
New Mill, Witney
RICS Award
Old Police Station, Colchester