The studio

An architecture & interiors practice, working at the pace of the land.

Atelier Verde is a small studio in the river valley, designing houses, quiet civic spaces and the gardens that hold them together. We take on few projects, and give each one our full attention.

Casa del Río — completed 2024
0 Years in practice
0 Projects completed
0 Awards & honours
0 Projects we take on
Our story

Begun in one room, above a stonemason’s yard.

Atelier Verde started with a single drawing board and a vineyard guest house no one else wanted to take on. Eighteen years later we are still small on purpose — fourteen people, six projects a year — because the kind of work we care about cannot be rushed.

We believe a building should feel like it has always been there: rooted in its ground, made of materials that belong to the place, and detailed so quietly that the architecture nearly steps out of the way. That conviction has shaped every commission since the first.

Elena Verde Founding Principal
How we work
Our approach

Four convictions that
shape every project.

No house style imposed — only a way of working we return to, drawing after drawing.

Site before form

Every project begins with the land, the light and the climate. We let context set the brief before a single line is drawn.

01

Material honesty

Stone, lime, oak and brass, left to read as themselves. We design for patina — buildings that age into something better.

02

Quiet detailing

The work that disappears is the work we labour over most — reveals, shadow gaps and joints resolved to the millimetre.

03

A long relationship

We stay close from first sketch to final handover, and often for years after. A house is never really finished.

04
The people

A close studio of fourteen, led by hand.

Every commission is run by a principal from first sketch to handover — never passed down a chain.

EV
Elena Verde Founding Principal AA Dipl. · 22 years in practice
TA
Tomás Aguilar Principal, Interiors RIBA · materials & light
SL
Saoirse Linden Associate Architect Heritage & adaptive reuse
MR
Mateo Rossi Landscape Lead Gardens, courtyards, terraces
PA
Priya Anand Project Architect Detailing & site delivery
JB
Johan Bisset Studio Manager Programme & client care
Recognition

Honoured, quietly, more than once.

We do not chase awards — but it means a great deal when the work is noticed by people we admire.

See the projects
2025
House of the Year, Shortlist Dezeen Awards
2024
Stone in Architecture, Winner Natural Stone Institute
2023
Best Interior, Residential AJ Architecture Awards
2022
Emerging Practice of the Year Wallpaper* Design
2021
Conservation Merit Award RIAS
2019
Small Project, Highly Commended World Architecture Festival
Our history

Eighteen years, in five chapters.

2009

The studio is founded

Elena Verde opens a one-room atelier above a stonemason’s yard with a single commission — a vineyard guest house.

2013

First public building

A lakeside reading pavilion brings the practice its first national feature and a growing list of private clients.

2017

Interiors & landscape join

Tomás and Mateo formalise two disciplines that had quietly shaped the work from the beginning.

2021

A studio of our own

We move into a restored mill on the river, daylit workshops below, model-making and material library above.

2026

Eighteen, and unhurried

A team of fourteen, working on roughly six projects a year — small, slow and deliberate, by design.

Start a conversation

If you are building something
worth doing slowly, let us talk.

We take on a handful of projects each year. Tell us about your site and your plans — we will write back within two days.