STUDIO

Dorota is responsible for overseeing the daily and long-term strategic operations of the practice. She is positive, organised and prioritises creating a culture of support, ensuring that everyone in the team has the resources and guidance they need to thrive. Dorota’s attention to detail and commitment to creating a supportive and inclusive workplace have fostered the strong studio culture we have today.

Dorota spent several years at large global design firms. Her experience in these roles has given her a well-rounded understanding of the pressures and challenges faced by a growing practice, as well a drive to create systems and processes that are tailored to the specific needs of our team. She leads all aspects of health and safety, ISO quality control, human resources, contracts and finances with confidence and empathy. Under Dorota’s leadership, Coffey has implemented a range of policies to promote industry-wide enrichment, including a comprehensive work experience programme, collaborative research and mentoring channels.

In addition to a strong interest in promoting sustainability in the workplace, Dorota is passionate about ethical consumerism, transparent supply chain practices in the design and fashion industries and sustainable food production. She is an active volunteer at Story Garden in King’s Cross as well as Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses.

Dorota is a member of Institute of Administrative Management.

Lee is responsible for the strategic planning and structural growth for the practice. He oversees a broad range of operational aspects including staff development and mentoring, recruitment, financial management, practice infrastructure, contracts and legal issues. These ongoing efforts reinforce a core principle within the practice that design excellence should be underpinned by equally clear process and sound business practice.

At Coffey, Lee has led award-winning projects including the Science Museum Research Centre Library, Digitech for Norwich City College, Howick Place HQ for U+I and multiple acclaimed private residential schemes. As a director, he maintains close involvement with project development and jointly leads the practice design review process at key stages for both design quality and technical compliance.

Lee was educated at the Bath University graduating with First Class Honours and at the Mackintosh School of Architecture and Architectural Association in London.

Selected projects:

Science Museum Research Centre Library for Science Museum Group, The Digitech Factory for for Norwich City College, Howick Place HQ for U+I

Margaret leads the strategic communications, outreach and engagement at Coffey. Her interest in spatial equity and feminist architectures drives these efforts and aims to influence the social priorities of the practice.

Alongside managing media relations, project, awards and marketing output, Margaret curates Coffey & Croissants, the studio's weekly speakers programme, as well as its ongoing residency with PATCH Collective entitled ‘Holding Space’. She has also led the practice’s longlisted entry, ‘Rights of Passage’, for the 2023 Davidson Prize and coordinates studio-wide mentoring programmes.

In addition to her role at Coffey, Margaret is a PhD candidate and Vice Chancellor’s Scholar at Nottingham Trent University. She holds an MA in Aesthetics of Kinship and Community from Birkbeck, University of London. Margaret’s written work on representations of race and gender in the built environment has been published in industry press including Dezeen and The Architects’ Journal and she has forthcoming academic publications in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing and the Journal of Girlhood Studies.

Michael provides incomparable design input and leadership to the team. He is the studio design mentor, leading review and debate across the materials and methods of nearly all projects at all scales. Michael champions the practice’s ethos around design informed by light and the outdoors, and spearheads research into biophilic design.

Among homes and housing, cultural buildings and urban masterplanning, Michael’s speciality is in identifying the clearest concept for every scheme and from there creating an architecture that brings beauty, enjoyment and pragmatism. He is a well-rounded architect that can look at the big picture while not forgetting the detail, and his passion for using the diagram as a tool to generate and represent ideas illustrates this keen clarity.

Michael works closely with clients from design stage to site delivery, a commitment bolstered by his belief that architecture should be experiential and engaging in order to create spaces that are loved by the people who use them every day.

Michael received his Part III from Westminster University where he has since been mentoring international students who wish to become architects in the UK. He studied at Aalborg University with a focus on sustainability, tectonic design and the Nordic architectural tradition. Michael also volunteers the Story Garden in King's Cross.

Selected projects:

Science Museum Research Centre for Science Museum Group, London Irish Centre, Exim Bank Headquarters, Dhaka Diamond, private homes include: Hidden House, Modern Detached, Apartment Block, Modern Mews

Phil founded Coffey Architects to pursue a passion for architecture, natural light, and the environment. His preoccupation with creating sustainable spaces informed by and connected to the outdoors has been a lifelong creative project, focused through design, drawing and photography.

Phil enjoys the process of building strong client relationships to deliver exceptional projects that inspire and delight. He is a hands-on director, engaging throughout all RIBA stages from design conception through to completion regardless of scale. Phil has led Coffey Architects to win major design awards and recognitions, including numerous RIBA National and Regional Awards, a Civic Trust Award, the MIPIM UK Visionary Architect, Masterplanner of the Year award, a Blueprint Award, the Stephen Lawrence Prize, Architects’ Journal 40 under 40 and BD Young Architect of the Year.

Phil is a regular contributor to the debate on architecture and urbanism, including public speaking and written and broadcast commentary for press. He has served on the Lewisham and Islington Council Planning Design Review Panels, as a UCL Bartlett design critic and an RIBA external assessor for the undergraduate and master programmes at Cardiff University, Welsh School of Architecture. Phil has judged several industry awards, including the RIBA London Awards, the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize, NLA’s Don’t Move, Improve Awards, Lighting Design Awards, Manchester Society of Architects and Grand Designs House of the Year.

Raf is a considered project leader with experience designing and running complex and sometimes contentious schemes at varying scales. He is especially adept at finding solutions that unlock the full potential of sites, often within highly sensitive heritage settings, to deliver planning approvals.

Raf’s housing, commercial and cultural work at Coffey has been acclaimed with national awards. Presently, he is leading two significant affordable housing schemes at Bishopsgate Goodsyard. Here he is applying his expertise to deliver a complex brief for a variety of stakeholders while designing new life into a previously inaccessible site.

Concerned with producing sustainable architecture that lasts, Raf is committed finding innovative design, low carbon and light-filled solutions. At the centre of all his projects is a desire to enhance space for everyone who experiences it, whether on an urban scale or in everyday interactions with architecture.

Raf studied architecture at the University of Nottingham with a focus on domesticity, displacement and transience and received his professional qualifications from The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. He has since served as a tutor and visiting critic at Nottingham University and Nottingham Trent University.

Selected projects:

Moor’s Nook for Pegasus Lifestory, The Television Centre Architects’ Series apartments for Stanhope, City University Library extension for City, University of London, 10 Exchange Square for British Land, 22 Handyside Street for Argent

Steve is a thoughtful and creative leader, responsible for heading projects and teams across the office to deliver Coffey’s high quality and considered work. His directorial responsibilities include design review, fee negotiation, contract review, resourcing, client liaison, mentoring and programming.

Invaluably, Steve is the practice’s sustainability champion, leading our planet-first agenda through the development a of robust low carbon strategy and materials roadmap. He has recently initiated an in-house whole life carbon analysis of previous projects to improve the studio’s empirical understanding and is formulating an in-house Sustainability Brief based on the RIBA Sustainable Outcomes Guide to achieve zero whole life carbon. Steve attended the BRE certified Passivhaus Designer training course and will be the studio’s passivhaus design lead pending certification.

In his role as a director, Steve also provides technical design review of projects, bringing comprehensive knowledge of high-profile heritage, education and commercial building programmes. He particularly enjoys the collaborative process of interrogating designs and realising projects alongside specialists to develop innovative solutions. Steve has an acute attention to detail and enjoys free-hand drawing as part of the creative design process.

Steve has lectured and taught at Sheffield, Bath, Leicester De Montford, Lincoln and Cardiff University. He also judged the RIBA CLAWSA prize at Westminster University and presented at the 2022 RIBA Products in Practice webinar on Housing & Residential Development.

Selected projects:

22 Handyside Street for Argent, Moor’s Nook for Pegasus Lifestory, 10 Exchange Square for British Land, Television Centre Architects’ Series for Stanhope, City University Library extension for City University, private homes include Cove Ridge and Modern Barn

Tom’s project design and leadership skills are founded in his curiosity for how buildings work technically and culturally. He brings creative vision and expertise across scales and sectors in merging technical and artistic interventions through built form. Tom recently led our award-winning educational facility for Norwich City College with a commitment to using clever material systems and attention to student experience to form unique and useful learning spaces.

Actively involved in researching new technologies and construction techniques, Tom is helping to lead the studio’s sustainability agenda. He is active on a peer-to-peer net zero working group and has created a methodology for benchmarking the practice’s past projects in terms of carbon impact. He also currently serves as a mentor for the FLUID Built by Us mentoring programme and was previously a mentor for the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust Building Futures programme.

Tom has taught and lectured at several schools of architecture, including the Architectural Association Visiting School in Sydney. He studied at The Architectural Association with a focus on public space, and civic/infrastructural architecture, alongside innovative material systems.

Selected projects:

The Digitech Factory for Norwich City College, Howick Place HQ for U+I, Wembley Housing for Quintain, Faraday Works for U+I