Imagination, empathy and experience in designing and reinventing buildings and places.
With people, organisations and communities we create workable and liveable places that are enjoyable and engaging. Understanding the specific context of each project, we explore constraints and opportunities to design schemes with beauty and a unique identity.
Feasibility & Strategy
We identify and analyse with you the spatial, organisational, environmental and technical challenges in meeting your requirements in the context of your existing estate. Time spent during RIBA Stages 0 and 1 on a Strategy Plan and Feasibility Studies will enable you to make informed development decisions and action plans.
Creative Dialogue
Your brief is key. We spend time with you, on your site, in your buildings and with you and your staff listening to your ambitions and scope, cost and time parameters. Sometimes the best project is not the obvious one. This dialogue is maintained throughout Design and Coordination during RIBA Stages 2 and 3.
Planning
Our record of winning planning permissions includes challenging sites, Metropolitan Open Land, Green Belt, Conservation Areas and Listed Buildings. We advise wide consultation and information sharing with statutory organisations, community and stakeholder groups and write and illustrate documents to support the application process.
Sustainability
Buildings repay the investment in them over time. A well designed building will be more flexible and useful for longer. Staff will be more engaged. We work with environmental and structural consultants to ensure projects use appropriate strategies to reduce their footprint of both embodied carbon and energy in-use.
Design
With architectural knowledge and intuition, we develop a clear concept for each project. Spatial and technical information and details are developed during RIBA Stages 3 and 4 to produce buildable descriptions, coordinating the input of our design and construction partners for Design and Build or Traditional contracts.
Innovation & Research
Many projects pose new design questions and we innovate with new insights or bespoke design. Our prefabricated Forest Home building system is supported by InnovateUK under their Transforming Construction Challenge. For the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership we are pioneering a prototype timber bike store.
Delivery
We love to see our client’s ideas realised and their ambitions fulfilled. Inspecting construction quality or resolving site queries during Construction RIBA Stage 5, we focus the resources and energies of the project team on the ultimate goal, timely delivery of a high quality project, on budget. We are aiming for a successful project that exceeds expectations.
Our Team
Phyllida Mills 🡢 has a lively and inclusive approach to architecture. She sits on Haringey’s Quality Review Panel, has been External Examiner at Cardiff University and teaches at Nottingham University. Phyllida was a Partner with award winning practice Penoyre & Prasad LLP responsible for Operations, Education and Housing projects. Â
‍Mark Power 🡢 leads development of the Forest Home. He values lateral thinking to inform the development of projects. He has lectured at Cardiff and Cambridge Universities and leads sketching tours for SPAB and city walks for The Architecture Foundation. As director of Mark Power Architect he won NLA’s Don’tMove Improve Timber Award.
‍David Janosi 🡢 is motivated by community and local engagement, his thesis project at the London School of Architecture was a high street community school and his dissertation was nominated for the RIBA Dissertation Medal. David joined Mills Power while studying at the University of Bath. He leads an annual summer camp for children in Hungary.
‍Collaborators
‍We work with artist Andrew Darke, Passivhaus designer Kim Huynh, environmental consultant Doug King, acoustician Tim Lewers, photographer Iona Wolff, innovation consultant Nico Macdonald.
Our Clients
We work with private organisations and individuals, charities and public sector clients on residential, education, public realm and social infrastructure projects:
‍
Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
Grange Big Local
St Christopher’s Hospice
DogBOT Technology Ltd
The Poetry Society
North Middlesex Cricket Club
International Institute for Environment and Development
Finchley Central Mediterranean Supermarket
St George’s University of London
Ruskin College
The Southbank Centre
Healthmatic Ltd
Tate Booker Ltd
Rotary Luton
Soda Cinema
Ursuline Preparatory School
Trip Kitchen&Bar and Trip Studio