ABOUT

Founded on ideas about ecology, sustainability, and social responsiveness.

Cullinan Studio is a team of 20 designers, makers, planners, and academics, with studios in London and Nottingham. We work with the people who are accountable for what they build; local authorities, housing associations, NHS trusts, universities, further education colleges, and the developers who build for communities to benefit. People who need to do the right thing with the opportunity in front of them, and who want an architecture practice that shares that ambition.

Our cooperative structure shapes how we work; a shared commitment to getting it right for the people who will live, learn, and work in the places and spaces we build.

What connects our work across housing, education, community health, and retrofit, is our approach: emphathetic, collaborative, and technically rigorous.

We design alongside communities. We listen carefully before we draw. We bring Passivhaus thinking, open-book cost management, and sixty years of working in the public and community sectors to every project, however complex the brief.

REGENERATIVE DESIGN

We are a signatory to Architects Declare and the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge, and members of the Good Homes Alliance and the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products. Our work is fabric first, and promotes a Circular Economy approach by prioritising materials, performance, and long-term adaptability. The best buildings use the least to achieve the most.

RIBA Royal Gold Medallist, Edward (Ted) Cullinan established the practice as a cooperative in 1965, with a founding commitment to ecology, sustainability and social responsiveness. Today, our cross-generational leadership structure shares responsibilities and mentors new designers, maintaining continuity in both design excellence and ethical practice.

Since 2025, the practice has been included in the Regenerative Architecture Index, reflecting our commitment to creating places that actively restore ecosystems, enhance biodiversity, and improve the wellbeing of communities, while considering the impact of current choices on future generations.

OUR HISTORY

Edward Cullinan Architects was established by Edward (Ted) Cullinan in 1965, who was an early proponent of sustainability and social awareness and a former colleague of Denys Lasdun.

We began life as a cooperative and continue to have a strong culture of shared learning, open innovation and the design of buildings as a ‘social act’.

In 2012, Edward Cullinan Architects became Cullinan Studio. Our London home is a former foundry on Regent’s Canal, which we retrofitted to the highest environmental standards, and in 2020 we opened a second studio in Nottingham.

We remain an employee-owned practice, sharing the belief that we were never meant to change the world alone. We can do better together.