Our Approach

Home-makers.
Place-makers.
Community-Engagers.
Our approach is inspired by our love for craft and attention to detail. We think that the experience and journey through a design should drive a project and we use our own experiences to help shape a brief.

Working alongside our clients, collaborators and consultants we constantly look for new trends to influence our own design approach.
Celebrating functionality, simplicity and clean lines, we focus on the application of Scandinavian design and lifestyle principles. We believe in re-instating the connection between key life events and architecture to create user focused spaces, which actively contribute to everyday life.
Celebrating raw materials and details during time working in Copenhagen. Image courtesy of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects.

Frederiksvej Kindergarten, Copenhagen by COBE Architects

"We see architecture as a rigorous and iterative process. Through extensive studies, we create dynamic environments and buildings, to not only cater for today but help shape our future towns, cities and countryside."

Hand drawing is an important part of our design process, used to extract key project details freely from the outset.
Conveying unique and conceptually driven ideas throughout all stages of the project cycle.
Starting with a competition entry in 2017 at Grand Designs Live for their ‘Growhouse’ project, the duo has since grown the portfolio into new sectors. However, the initial Growhouse concept continues to form the basis for the practice’s core values and ethos to date with social sustainability and MMC (Modern Methods of Construction) principles playing a large part across current projects.

When Ashley & Gavin met Kevin, Grand Designs Live 2017 - Runners Up.

Founded on a passion for architecture and design, Define is led by couple, Gavin Watts and Ashley Taylor who believe in creating beautiful buildings, public spaces, landscapes and urban plans, which are design for specific needs yet challenge the user experience.

Influenced by their time working in Scandinavia, their ambition is to establish a collective of designers, which aims to challenge the social responsibility of architecture and the notion of collaboration in our industry.
Gavin Watts and Ashley Taylor Watts
Our home is Manchester, but our work takes us across the UK and beyond. With bases in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, our projects span across a series of building sectors, all facing their own individual challenges. As architects we are problem solvers and our projects are characterised for over-coming obstacles through high-quality design.

Conceptual driven yet technically crafted, our approach is rooted by a deep understanding of the user’s requirements, which are then translated into beautiful architecture.