ABOUT US
About Phasezero Design Studio Architecture & Interiors, London
Phasezero Design Studio was founded on a simple belief: the best design starts before the first drawing. That early stage — understanding a project's potential, constraints, and true ambition — is what we call Phase Zero. It is the thinking that makes everything else possible.
Based in West Hampstead, London, we work with private residential clients, heritage property owners, and hospitality operators who want spaces that feel considered, lasting, and entirely their own. Our projects range from the sensitive restoration of period buildings and listed properties to full architectural fit-outs for boutique hotels and restaurants.
With over 50 completed projects across the UK, Italy, and Spain, we bring international perspective to every commission — and the rigour of RIBA Plan of Work standards to every stage.
Lisa — From a dream house to Phasezero
When I was twelve, our class was asked to design our dream house.
While most children drew something that looked like a house, I designed something rather different.
There was a Zen garden. A bedroom that was essentially a swimming pool, with a bed floating in the middle of it. A completely empty bathroom, reached by stairs descending into a marble bath that felt more like a private pool. There was a ballroom, a room designed simply to sit and watch a leaf through a hole, another where a leaf could be watched inside a glass column, and a dining room centred around a single table.
I didn’t know it then, but that project contained many of the things that still define the way I think about architecture today: the relationship between people and space, the experience of moving through a room, the importance of materials, nature, light, and the idea that a home can be much more than a collection of functional rooms.
I simply knew that I loved imagining spaces.
From Naples to Venice
That early fascination led me to the Artistic High School in Naples, where I studied architecture and developed the technical and creative foundations that would eventually become my profession.
It was also where I met Flavia.
We were both drawn to art, architecture and the possibilities of creating spaces, and our friendship began there, long before either of us knew that we would eventually work together.
After graduating, I moved to Venice to study Architecture at IUAV.
Venice was an important chapter in my education. It taught me to look at architecture not simply as buildings, but as something deeply connected to history, place, material, proportion and the way people experience their surroundings.
At the end of my degree, I had another plan: Japan.
I wanted to go there to continue learning and to experience a completely different architectural culture. There was just one problem.
I didn’t pass the English test.
So, instead, I came to London for a few months to learn English.
That was ten years ago.
I never went back.
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London, construction and the beginning of Phasezero Design Studio
London became the unexpected next chapter of my career.
I found a job in construction and stayed in the industry until 2019. Working within construction gave me something that university could never have taught me: an understanding of how buildings are actually made.
I learned about materials, trades, sequencing, budgets, contractors, problems on site and, perhaps most importantly, what happens when a beautiful idea meets the reality of a building.
In 2019, I decided to start Phasezero.
The beginning was deliberately small. I was still building my experience, so the first projects were relatively straightforward.
But each project became a step towards something more ambitious.
The projects that changed everything
Then came Covid.
During a period when so much of the world stopped, my work took an unexpected turn. I was given my first large and genuinely challenging project.
It pushed me far beyond the type of work I had been doing until then. It was difficult, complex and at times overwhelming, but it also changed the scale of what I believed Phasezero could take on.
Not long afterwards, I was approached about a complex historical restoration in Italy for an American client.
I moved to Italy to oversee the project.
It was another turning point.
Working on a historic property brought together everything I had gradually accumulated: architecture, construction, materials, problem solving, conservation, project management and the ability to work with a wide range of people and specialists.
And it opened another chapter.
Flavia — A friendship that became a collaboration
By this point, Flavia had taken her own path.
After our years together in Naples, she had moved into interior design and was working in Barcelona.
When I moved to Italy, I needed someone I trusted to oversee Phasezero's projects in the UK.
So I asked Flavia to join me.
In 2022, she officially became part of Phasezero.
What had started as a friendship between two architecture students years earlier became a professional collaboration.
While I was in Italy, Flavia helped oversee our UK projects, but also getting clients in Barcelona, and I continued developing the Italian work.
Soon, the Italian portfolio grew.
Another historical restoration came along, this time for a UK client, followed by a residential project.
For a while, my life became a constant movement between Italy and the UK.
Rino — Building the Italian side of Phasezero
During this period in Italy, I met Rino.
Rino and his team became an important part of the way we were able to operate in Italy. Having people on the ground whom we could trust meant that Phasezero could take on increasingly complex projects without losing the personal involvement and control that had always been central to our work.
It also made me realise that Phasezero didn't need to belong to one place.
The practice had grown out of London, developed through Italy, and was increasingly shaped by the combination of both.
Eventually, I moved back to the UK.
By then, Phasezero was no longer the small practice I had started in 2019.
We were taking on complex refurbishments, working on projects in phases, dealing with historic buildings and listed properties, and coordinating teams across different countries.
Max is a contractor, but that description doesn't really capture why he became an important part of the way we work.
Max has an instinct for management and, perhaps more importantly, an ability to solve problems.
Construction rarely follows the drawing exactly. Something is always unexpected: a dimension, a structure, a material, a detail that doesn't work once it reaches site.
Max is the kind of contractor who doesn't simply come back with a problem. He comes back with a solution. He understands the importance of the design, protects it during construction and looks for inventive ways to make difficult details work without compromising the original idea.
That combination of management, practical knowledge and respect for design is exactly what makes our collaboration work.
Together, we bring the design and construction sides of a project into the same conversation, combining creativity, technical knowledge and practical problem-solving from the beginning. Ultimately, our clients benefit from having that relationship built into the team, rather than having design and construction work as separate worlds.
I met Anna around the time I opened the studio. She had just started her own procurement agency, while I was mainly focused on architecture.
We became friends, but for a long time we never actually worked together.
As PHASEZERO moved into more complex projects and I became increasingly involved in interiors, the nature of our work changed.
We started collaborating.
What began as a friendship gradually became an important professional relationship, and today Anna is a key part of the PHASEZERO team, overseeing procurement across our projects.
From sourcing to coordinating suppliers, managing orders and keeping track of the countless details behind an interior, she brings a level of organisation and control that becomes essential once a project moves from drawings into reality.
From Phase Zero
The name Phasezero comes from the idea of beginning at the very beginning.
Before the drawings. Before the materials. Before the construction.
Phase Zero is where the possibilities are still open.
That is still how we approach every project.
We don't believe that good architecture is about applying a particular style to every client or forcing a predetermined idea onto a building.
It starts with understanding.
The building.
The place.
The people.
The way they live.
The history.
The constraints.
And, sometimes, the things that don't yet exist.
From there, we build the project step by step — from the first idea through design, detailing, construction and the final layer of interiors.
Architecture that is experienced, not simply seen
Today, Phasezero works across architecture, interior design and construction, bringing together the creative and practical sides of a project.
Our work ranges from contemporary residential interiors to complex refurbishments, historical restorations and listed buildings.
But the common thread is not a particular aesthetic.
It is the experience of the space.
That idea goes all the way back to the twelve-year-old who designed a bedroom that was a swimming pool, a bathroom that was a marble landscape and rooms whose entire purpose was to watch a leaf.
The projects have become more sophisticated.
The drawings have become more technical.
The buildings have become real.
But the fundamental question has remained the same:
What could this space make you feel?
That is where Phasezero begins.
OUR VALUES
What Drives Us
Integrity
We are honest, transparent, and committed to doing what's right for our clients, our team, and the planet.
Collaboration
We believe the best outcomes come from genuine partnership, listening deeply and working alongside our clients.
Excellence
We pursue the highest standard in everything we do, from the first sketch to the final handover.