About
Bricolage is an architectural studio led by Will Howard. We make, and remake, buildings and spaces that are enduring, evocative, and serve both people and the planet.
Founded with purpose, Bricolage responds to the urgent challenges of our time: climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity, and deepening inequality. Building today comes with real costs. Our role is to tread lightly, build carefully, and focus on repair as much as creation. We shape environments that are not only functional and beautiful, but deeply responsible.
We work with likeminded clients who see value beyond profit, and who understand that building with integrity is both essential and rewarding. We believe in a hopeful future: one where homes are resilient, cities thrive as ecosystems, and construction is guided by care rather than excess.
What we care about:
What we do:
What sets us apart is a rare combination of design intelligence, construction experience and strategic thinking. We work directly with materials, sites and communities, championing reuse, adaptation and resourcefulness. We tread lightly and often take on the responsibility of producing built projects ourselves.
We work with councils, offer design advice, lead research, write guidance and collaborate across disciplines to explore better ways of building. This strategic work informs our design practice, and vice versa. We aim to break out of silos, find common language, and seek alternative models of working that lead to more equitable outcomes.
We teach, speak, write and contribute to wider industry conversations. Advocacy is central to how we work, whether through collective initiatives or quiet persistence, and is part of how we support change towards a better future.
Awards
About Will
Will is an architect with 18 years of experience creating sustainable and joyful buildings. He founded Bricolage in 2025 and combines practice with teaching, at the University of Reading. Previously an Associate Director at dRMM, he led many progressive urban projects across London and the UK.
Will brings a distinctive mix of strategic thinking, design flair and hands-on making to his work. In 2023, he self-built Castlands Road, a home for his young family, acting as developer, architect, project manager, contractor and maker. He designed and built all the bespoke joinery in the house.
In his 11 years at dRMM, Will developed a strong focus on housing and mixed-use projects, delivering significant schemes for notable clients. He was Project Architect for 415 Wick Lane, one of the first completed projects to co-locate 175 homes with B2 industrial space, and for Plot 15 at Brent Cross Town, a Build to Rent scheme with homes, wellbeing-focused amenities and a parade of High Street shopfronts. He has a particular interest in intensified mixed-land uses in urban contexts, seeing material and land scarcity as a catalyst for better, more liveable and sustainable places.
His experience also includes leading timber frame mid-rise Passivhaus housing, and dRMM’s contribution to 980 Great West Road, a mixed-tenure residential building above a retained basement structure as part of a retrofit-first masterplan by Haworth Tompkins.
Will works with curiosity and playfulness, underpinned by deep technical rigour. He values hands-on craftsmanship and engagement with tradespeople and local communities. He has lectured at the AA, University of Reading and University of Salford, and offers careers advice to those entering the profession. He sits on several Design Review Panels in London and is committed to delivering enduring, meaningful and equitable projects.