Philosophy

We are driven by the desire to create individual, well considered, site and user specific Architecture that sits lightly on our planet. Each project is unique and thus inspires a different aesthetic and technological response. Our projects are located across Wales and England and span a broad range of typologies:

Collaboration and communication are key to the success of our projects, both within the practice and the way we explore and develop schemes, and with our clients and consultants. Catalina encourages an open and expressive studio environment, removing the usual hierarchical structure. In doing so it emboldens its team members to freely challenge each other, irrespective of title or standing. The result - inventive, well considered and thought provoking Architecture.

Alun Charles are registered to use the title ‘Architect’ under the Architect Act 1997.

We endeavor to ensure that every project that passes through our hands is given in-depth consideration, exploration, and experimentation, ensuring the best solution is worked out. ‘Every object which you pass from your hand must carry an outspoken mark of individuality, beauty, and most exact execution’ Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1902

Respond

First is to thoroughly understand and respond to the site, its physical characteristics, its materials, its history, its elements. This understanding is not only key to making the building sustainable and energy efficient, but is also vital for making the building sit at home in its environment. We don’t do pastiche, we strive to respond with understanding to what is there.

Collaborate

We work in an open and flexible way within our office and with our clients and consultants. While the Architect may take the lead in the early stages of a design, discussions with our technicians are continuous. How can the concept inform the technical approach, and how can this feed back into the concept? It is a circular process. Added to this is discussions with environmental consultants, structural engineers and the Client, as well as collaboration with artists, sculptors and craftspeople.

Sustainability

As touched on above, creating buildings that sit lightly on the earth is a fundamental principle of all our projects. We strive for every building to harness what it can from its site, and take as little as possible from elsewhere. We work to ensure that our proposals will last many Lifetimes, ensuring their embedded resources have been well used.

Delight

As well as striving for a pragmatic and quantitative response, we aim for our proposals to exude beauty and delight, spatially, materially and technically.