The journal

Notes on
making things.

We write things down as we go — what a material did, what a room needed, and where we were wrong.

Materials
Why we smoke oak instead of staining it

A stain sits on the surface and wears off unevenly. Smoking changes the timber all the way through. The difference shows up in year three.

Jonas Lindqvist 18 Feb 2026
Light
The four o'clock test

Most rooms are designed for noon and photographed at golden hour. We check them at four in the afternoon in November, when a room has nowhere to hide.

Mara Okonkwo 04 Feb 2026
Adaptive Reuse
What we keep: a survey before a scheme

Before drawing anything on an existing building we spend a fortnight recording what is already there. It changes the project more often than the brief does.

Mara Okonkwo 21 Jan 2026