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Austin Design Works
This year we are celebrating ten years of Austin Design Works, the Nailsworth architecture and landscape studio founded in its current form by Rachael and Matthew Austin in 2016.
Over the past decade, the family-run practice has grown into a multidisciplinary studio bringing architecture and landscape design together, with a particular focus on thoughtful, sustainable projects rooted in the Cotswolds and surrounding countryside.
There is a longer family story behind the business. Architect David Austin established his practice locally after working with Ruskin Mill in the 1990s, laying foundations that Rachael and Matthew would later build upon. But 2016 marked a new chapter: Austin Design Works was created, combining Rachael's landscape with Matthew's architectural expertise and establishing the unique collaborative approach that defines the studio today.
Architecture remains at the heart of the practice. The team works on self-build homes, extensions and renovations, sensitive retrofit projects and the alteration and conservation of listed and historic buildings. With much of its work taking place within the Cotswolds, the studio has considerable experience of designing in sensitive rural locations and helping clients navigate what can often be a complex planning process.
That can mean taking a project from the earliest ideas and feasibility work through planning and listed building consent, detailed design and construction. Increasingly, the focus is also on improving the buildings people already have: reducing energy use, making older homes warmer and more efficient, and finding ways to introduce contemporary design without losing the character that makes them special.
Landscape design sits alongside the architecture, allowing buildings and their surroundings to be considered as one. Across private homes, historic properties, public spaces and larger rural projects, sustainability and a strong sense of place run through the studio's work.
In 2024, Austin Design Works became a certified B Corp, recognising its commitment to using business as a force for positive environmental and social change.
The anniversary year has also brought one of the studio's biggest achievements to date. At the inaugural RHS Badminton Flower Show in July, Rachael Austin's Ruskin Mill Trust Artisan Woodland Craft Garden won an RHS Gold Medal and Best Artisan Garden, as well as being Highly Commended for the RHS Environmental Innovation Award.
Austin Design Works is going from strength to strength, managing highly complex projects, whilst weaving expertise and sustainability alongside a practical, friendly and honest approach.
Here's to the next ten years! More about the studio's architecture and landscape work is available on the Austin Design Works website.
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