Architects Journal Feature Folia Architects; New Practice Series
Award-Winning Duo Launches Folia Architects: A New Chapter for Sustainable Design in Mid Devon
After a decade of leading award-winning sustainable projects across the UK, architects Matt and Rachel have announced the launch of their new practice, Folia Architects. Based in a woodland studio near Exeter, the practice brings a "Considered Architecture" philosophy to the heart of the West Country, specialising in low-energy homes that celebrate the unique Devon landscape.
Practice name Folia Architects
Based Bickleigh, Devon
Founded April 2025
Main people Rachel Hayes and Matt Hayes
Where have you come from?
We both co-founded a lovely practice in Hereford called Arbor Architects in 2019, which is going from strength to strength. Previously, we worked together at Architype on some of the most sustainable buildings in the UK. We met in Bristol at university and first collaborated setting up some hands-on live build projects at festivals and for local charities, including coming runners-up in a live-build international chicken coop competition.
What work do you have and what kind of projects are you looking for?
We’re aiming to focus our work in Devon, Somerset and Cornwall, working closely with people looking to build their own homes, develop barn conversions and other rural enterprises.
In terms of our current work, we’ve just got planning permission for an enerPHit Passivhaus dwelling, converting a timber-frame workshop into a family home, while on the drawing board, we have a small yoga studio barn conversion made entirely from natural (bio-based) materials.
What are your ambitions?
We want to be recognised for genuinely sustainable architecture that is full of joy, beauty and delight. The physical connection to nature and a building’s surroundings is essential for all our projects. We’re already finding that woodland strolls from the design studio really help free the mind to solve those tricky design decisions.
We’ve found from our own conversion and self-build projects a greater understanding from the hands-on application, more than the theory alone. We’ve enjoyed experimenting with natural bio-based materials. We’ve been fortunate to see the timber being felled and milled in a local woodland beforehand, which was incredible.
What are the biggest challenges facing you as a start-up and the profession generally?
We learnt a great deal during the Covid-19 pandemic, which landed six months after we launched our previous practice. We’re taking a lot of the learning, digital tools and efficiencies made there into our work now.
We think our biggest challenge is building a client base in an area we’ve just moved to. Luckily, we’ve worked with some fantastic clients and consultants over the past decade, so we have a lot of experience to draw upon. We’re also looking for local contractors who’ve built to the stringent Passivhaus standard.
Which scheme, completed in the last five years, has inspired you most?
We really liked the Urban Nature Project by Feilden Fowles. The simplicity of an exposed timber frame with large overhanging eaves creates such lovely spaces to dwell. Our all-time favourite project has to be Turn End by Peter Aldington, which we first visited back in the early 2000s. It’s a project we regularly return to as a precedent for its connection to landscape, tectonic nature of the building components and spaces that hug around you with tactility.
Are you using any new design techniques, such as AI?
We’ll continue to bring big-practice tools like 3D BIM modelling, visualisations and VR to our streamlined design studio. In terms of AI, we’re embracing its post-editing of renders/images and in our document process efficiency.
We find the practice’s thermal imaging camera is like having X-ray goggles for finding thermal bridges on site!
We do love a good old-fashioned pencil sketch for getting ideas onto paper and for collaborating in design workshops.
How are you marketing yourselves?
In addition to social media, we’re enjoying meeting with our immediate network and reconnecting with folk in the South West … which tends to mean we’re drinking copious amounts of coffee. Our strategy has been to specialise – bringing our Passivhaus and low-energy approach, combined with award-winning design, into rural communities.