designing beautiful architecture by building a better business
Rod Moreno Masey sat down with Business of Architecture's Rion Willard to discuss the firm's inception, growing pains, team development and client acquisition strategies, and the shift to a more systematic approach in designing journeys for projects, clients, and teams.
Watch the interview in the link above or continue reading
“What I’m trying to build is a business that can do beautiful architecture. That’s a completely different skillset.”
From Bartlett beginnings to building a studio
I graduated from the Bartlett in 1999 and learnt my craft at Michaelis Boyd, working across high-end residential before formally founding Moreno Masey in 2010. Our earliest wins came from trust: a developer friend took a chance on us with a Trafalgar Square conversion, which gave us the cashflow and confidence to set up properly — office, team, the lot.
For the first six to seven years, the phone rang constantly. Hospitality roll-outs kept cash moving, residential word-of-mouth did the rest. We didn’t market; we just worked.
Then the pipeline tightened.
That was the wake-up call. I realised there’s a whole part of running an architecture business that architecture school doesn’t teach: leadership, sales, systems, and repeatable delivery. I started working with a business mentor to get altitude — to fly above the clouds and see the whole company, not just the project in front of me.
Turning The Pyramid Upside Down
Like many small practices, we’d built around me. Brilliant people, but the structure made me the bottleneck: everything passed through “Rod”. At our peak we were 22–23 people, yet senior time was spent managing layers rather than designing.
We flipped the model:
Leads close to clients. Our most experienced architects are now the front face of projects — no unnecessary layers between client and decision-maker.
Pooled expertise. Instead of fixed, siloed teams, we have a flexible pool of specialists (layouts, conservation, detailing, BIM) that assemble around what a project actually needs.
Do it right first time. Senior talent pushes quality up front rather than “checking from above” after juniors have spent weeks. It’s faster, better and fairer for the client.
Net result: we’re a leaner 12-person studio delivering similar turnover with lower overheads — and more time spent on what matters: design quality and solving the right problems.
“The goal is beautiful architecture by Moreno Masey — not only by me.”
Systemising The 80% So The 20% Can Sing
Lockdown made one thing obvious: there’s a lot of repetition in our jobs. Proposals, first meetings, planning packs — 80% is consistent, project to project. Systemising that isn’t about cookie-cutters; it’s about freeing time for the 20% that must be bespoke.
We call these systems journeys — designed experiences for:
Clients (clear steps, decisions, costs, timeframes)
Our team (training, feedback, ownership)
Projects (from first call to aftercare)
We’re capturing what doesn’t need reinventing — drawing standards, information sets, QA, how we present options — so we can put more energy into the parts that do: form, light, materiality, sustainability and social impact.
The Discipline of Listening (properly)
Most residential briefs arrive as shopping lists: “basement, rear extension, six bathrooms”. Our job is to pause and ask why. What problem are we solving? Space? Light? Family life? Budget? Time? Sometimes the best advice is don’t buy this house. We’ve said exactly that — and clients come back when the right house appears, because the advice was honest.
If a client keeps changing their mind, we haven’t solved the underlying problem. That’s on us. The art is to listen past the checklist and into the why. Then solve it beautifully.
“We’re not artists with patrons. We’re professionals providing a commercial service — and that can still be beautiful.”
How We Sell (By Serving)
Working with a sales coach sharpened our first conversations. They’re simple, structured and client-led:
Story first. “When did you buy? What have you changed? Why now?”
Probe gently. Notice patterns; test assumptions (“What if the kitchen moved?”).
Frame trade-offs. Clarity on cost, time and disruption early.
Right fit. If the brief doesn’t solve the real problem — or we’re not the right partner — we say so.
The result is fewer surprises mid-project, better decisions, and designs that stand up to real life (and real budgets).
Hiring For Depth, Training For Range
Great architecture needs great people and a clear path to grow. We’ve formalised hiring and development:
Skill-first deployment. People move across projects where their superpower adds most value (layouts, conservation, detailing, masterplanning).
Deliberate training. Not “watch the master and hope it sticks”, but explicit skill-building so architects see the whole lifecycle sooner by touching multiple projects across different stages.
Flat, not fuzzy. Fewer layers, more ownership, clearer progression.
This isn’t the big-practice model of “door schedules for two years”. It’s broader, faster learning — with support.
The Gap Between Education and Practice
Architecture school (and the media) celebrate the one tower, the dramatic bridge — the “brain surgery” of our industry. Most of the built world isn’t that. It’s the village GP: relentless, vital, human-scale problem-solving that still demands craft and care.
We believe the profession needs a tighter bond between vision and buildability. Too often, “planning architects” hand over to “delivery architects”. Why doesn’t it already work? We prize details that are elegant and buildable — the kind contractors want to price, not “value engineer” into something else on site.
What’s Next?
Two priorities:
Pipeline, properly. Post-pandemic, enquiries are back. We’re matching that with stronger intake systems so every client gets the same considered experience.
A business that delivers without bottlenecks. Keep codifying how we work so the studio can produce consistently excellent architecture — regardless of whether Rod is in the room.
“If I only wanted to ‘do architecture’, I’d join a big practice. I’m building a business that does beautiful architecture.”
“Clients don’t hire us for a style; they hire us to solve the right problems, beautifully. That’s what our systems, team and culture are built to do.”
