Practice
Halse Architects was founded in Hawes, North Yorkshire in 2017 by Robert Halse, after fifteen years working in London and Copenhagen. The practice was set up to make the kind of work that needs slow attention — single-house renovations, small commercial conversions, agricultural buildings, the occasional public commission.
We don't grow. The practice has been four people since 2021 and we don't plan to add a fifth. That ceiling is what allows us to take on three to five projects a year, and to be physically present at every site visit, every contractor meeting, and every snagging walk.
We are a RIBA Chartered Practice and members of the Architects Registration Board. Every job carries the full PI cover and project insurance you would expect of a larger studio.
Principal
RIBA · ARB · Founder
Robert trained at the Bartlett and worked at Caruso St John in London and Lundgaard & Tranberg in Copenhagen before returning to Yorkshire. He teaches a third-year studio at the Sheffield School of Architecture twice a year and writes occasionally for the Architects' Journal.
His own house, a converted agricultural building above Hawes, was longlisted for the 2024 RIBA House of the Year.
01
No drawing comes before three site visits in different weather. The brief is half-written by the place itself.
02
The person who hears the brief is the person on site at handover. No project leaves Robert's desk halfway through.
03
We start every job with a sample table — stone, timber, plaster, metal — agreed before geometry is fixed. The detail decides the building.