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Designs on success


Atelier de Linde is an award-winning RIBA-chartered practice which specialises in bespoke residential, commercial, educational and sustainable developments of all sizes. Eileen Leahy meets one of its co-founders Angie Pool to discover more about this female-led firm…

It’s a grey, rainy Monday autumnal afternoon when I meet Angie Pool, co-founder of Atelier de Linde Architects at the firm’s temporary HQ on St John’s Road.

But the inclement weather is soon a distant memory as I step inside the firm’s welcoming offices. Angie greets me like an old friend, offers me coffee and tells me she has just returned from a long weekend of exhibiting at the ExCel Homebuilding and Renovating show.

“It’s been wonderful to meet so many people but it has also been exhausting,” laughs Angie – not looking tired in the slightest.

Angie says that while she was at ExCel she spoke to a potential client about their project. 

“I talked to her about what she was trying to achieve from the space and how it would work with her lifestyle and environment. Some architects design buildings that function but we also think about a client’s lifestyle. That is something that continually drives all of our designs – and where we differ from others.”

Angie explains that every time she and her co-founder Tara de Linde get a new client they sit down and brainstorm ideas and work out their feasibility. 

“It’s about mapping out clients’ lifestyles and listening to them. You have to remember it is their money and a huge investment.”

I am here to discover what Atelier de Linde has been up to over the past year or so after relocating to Tunbridge Wells.

And although its St John’s Road offices are only a stop-gap while the team looks for its ideal premises – preferably customer-facing on the High Street or The Pantiles Angie tells me – the small but growing Atelier de Linde team are very happy to be ensconced in Tunbridge Wells.

The boutique practice was established just over two years ago and the firm is committed to delivering projects that are not only environmentally friendly and energy efficient but beautifully designed too. 

“Sustainability at the core of what we do. It has never been a tick box for us.”

Since it was established in 2022 Atelier de Linde has a 97% success rate in planning applications and also won a number of awards for its high quality, inclusive and eco-driven design. 

It has just completed an impressive development of boarding accommodation at a school in Battle and one of its most recent projects, Great Hall Bayhall Barn near Pembury, recently won a prestigious BUILD Architecture Award.

“We were recognised in the Most Innovative High-End Architectural Practice in the South East category,” Angie reveals, adding that since that particular project began, the firm have taken on at least five more barn conversions.

“We do seem to be gaining momentum and becoming known as a specialist of Class Q and barn conversions in conjunction with our affiliated planning consultants and projects of that nature. At the recent ExCel exhibition lots of people were asking us about the conversion of agricultural buildings into private dwellings and selling off land for development. There’s so much interest for that too at the moment.”

Despite being a relatively young practice both Tara and Angie have worked in architecture for years both here in the UK, Europe and also Angie’s native South Africa. Both women are regularly asked to be judges at industry awards too.

Currently most of its clients are local but they also stretch out to Surrey, Sussex and London and would eventually like to do more global work such as hotels.

But now being based in Tunbridge Wells means they like to collaborate with local firms wherever possible. These include SJD Land and Development, engineers and surveyors CALtech, property finder Fiona Penny, photographer Dee Airey and Loch Associates who do all Atelier de Linde’s HR.

Another key thing both she and Tara are determined to do is give back a little by supporting other women in business. “We want to create a quarterly meeting where we can talk openly about various challenges, share knowledge and mentor.”

In terms of the way the partners carve up their work Tara usually does all the design and planning while Angie focuses on the details and delivery. In addition to the growing design team, which now includes a core team of seven (excluding freelancers) Angie’s sister Dominika manages the practice. 

“We’re still working round the clock and wearing a lot of hats but we are moving forward,” smiles Angie. “We never want to be the practice that just does the planning and says we’ll hand it over to someone else now. We want to get clients the whole way through and exceed their expectations.”

Contact Atelier de Linde:

Website: www.atelierdelinde.co.uk

Instagram: @atelierdelinde

Eileen Leahy
Author: Eileen Leahy

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