Studio Skein: Rethinking Architecture Through Circular Design

Studio Skein is not your average architectural practice. Emerging from the transition of McCaren Design into a cooperative in 2020, the team used this moment of reinvention to fundamentally rethink how they wanted architecture to serve people, place and planet.

Climate Connections spoke to Business Manager & Director Hilary Kolinsky and Interior Architect Fleur Powell about their journey from typical architecture to a circular design practice.

The big picture

Studio Skein is an example of how architectural practice can meaningfully reduce environmental impact by adopting circular design as a default way of working. Their approach focuses on reusing existing materials, minimising waste through careful auditing and deconstruction, prioritising bio-based alternatives and treating buildings as ‘material banks’ that hold social and cultural value.

By working closely with clients and communities, adapting designs to what already exists and embracing more time-intensive but resource-savvy processes, the studio shows how even small practices can deliver substantial carbon savings while creating characterful, community-led spaces. These principles of reuse, valuing what’s already there, collaborating and designing flexibly, offer a practical blueprint for any studio seeking to shift toward a more circular, future-ready practice.

Reinventing a practice from the inside out

As Hilary explained, “The shift to a cooperative represented an opportunity to really reframe what we do in a way that aligns with the difference we want to make in the world.”

Rather than following the well-trodden linear route of demolish, buy new and build, Studio Skein centres its practice on circular design; using what already exists, minimising waste, championing bio-based and natural materials and valuing the social and cultural stories embedded in every building.

Fleur adds, “The starting point is always the same: minimise landfill waste and maximise the opportunities that the project offers.”

Why circular design matters

The studio’s commitment to circular architecture developed over years of thinking, experimenting and learning by doing. Projects such as Jabulani 2.0 challenged them to rethink material sourcing and reuse under constrained conditions.

Hilary explains, “It wasn’t one defining moment, but this sense of circling around the same ideas until it became clear that circularity was the right path.”

Along with exposure to research on retrofit and finite global resources, the studio recognised a startling reality: the materials needed to retrofit millions of homes using conventional methods simply do not exist without causing further environmental harm.

“We can’t keep assuming that whatever’s available on the builders’ merchant website has no impact, even ‘good’ materials carry a footprint,” states Hilary.

Fleur continues, “Forty percent of carbon emissions come from the construction industry. If circular thinking can challenge that system even a little, that’s huge.”

Circular design is the necessary shift in how we value materials, communities and time. Buildings as Fleur describes, become ‘material banks’, “Buildings are material banks, if we use what we’ve already got rather than mining and processing new materials, it changes everything. And that’s really exciting.”

Collaboration, community and the craft of reuse

Circular construction requires a different mindset and workflow. There is detailed auditing needed of existing materials. There’s the issue of careful removal, storage and reuse, instead of quick strip-outs and overnight demolitions. Local sourcing and logistics force each project to be flexible and adapt in its design, especially considering the close collaboration needed with clients and community stakeholders to see a project through to fruition.

Fleur said, “Every project is an opportunity, not just to meet a brief but to do something good along the way for everyone involved.”

This approach is undoubtedly more time-intensive, but it leads to richer outcomes: buildings with character, longevity and community identity, shaped by the constraints and opportunities of what already exists.

“It’s much quicker to strip something out and throw it in a skip than to carefully remove each piece, but that’s exactly why most people don’t do it,” Fleur explains.

Hilary agrees, “Circular systems don’t really exist yet in our sector, so what we’re doing often feels like pushing into a space that hasn’t matured, one tiny, saved piece of wood at a time.”

The measurable gains of circular architecture

Studio Skein’s projects prove that circular design creates tangible environmental benefits. The Jabulani 2.0 project alone achieved approximately 100 tonnes of carbon savings compared with conventional construction methods.

Social sustainability principles run throughout the studio, with meaningful client collaboration, community participation, hands-on involvement in making and building, safeguarding local heritage and enabling creative and cultural activities.

“Getting hands-on with making something is such a valuable way of embedding yourself in a project or a community, and it’s far more engaging when people are invited into the process. Their ideas shape the project, and they become part of the story,” said Hilary.

These benefits are inseparable from environmental impact and equally crucial to creating resilient, future-ready places.

Shaping the future for a circular built environment

Looking ahead, Studio Skein hopes the wider sector will follow suit. They envision a future where material reuse is valued and incentivised, through supply chains making reclaimed materials accessible, certifiable and cost-effective. This requires policy, market and culture change, but Studio Skein remain optimistic.

Fleur continues, “There’s an enormous appetite for this, from communities, creatives, peers and clients who want architecture to do better. We want to do projects we’re passionate about, ones that align with our values and genuinely make a difference. If the market valued existing materials even 25% more, everything would change overnight.”