Residential · Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Structures that hold light, silence & time.
We are a studio of architects, interior designers and makers working between Hong Kong, Milan and New York — building cultural, residential and commercial space from the first sketch to the final detail.
A practice built on restraint and daylight.
We begin every project by asking what a place already knows — its light, its weather, its habits of use. What we add is measured against that.
Founded in 2009, Arc Studio works across scales from a single room to a city block. We keep the practice deliberately small: three partners, eighteen people, and no more than ten live projects in the studio at any one time. Every drawing that leaves this office has been drawn, questioned and redrawn by one of us.
Our buildings are quiet, durable and generous. We specify honest materials — concrete, timber, stone, lime — and detail them so they age into something better than they began.
Projects, 2020 — 2025.
Eight works from the last five years — housing, galleries, workplaces and interiors. Filter by type.
Cultural · Aarhus, Denmark
Residential · Milan, Italy
Commercial · Rotterdam, Netherlands
Residential · Lisbon, Portugal
Interior · Kyoto, Japan
Cultural · Seoul, South Korea
Interior · Copenhagen, Denmark
Showing 8 of 8 works
Commission a projectThree ways we work with you.
Design, consultation or interior — the same studio, the same standard of drawing. Most clients begin with a feasibility study and stay with us to the final snag list.
Full-service architectural design from first concept to completion on site. We lead the whole process — planning strategy, technical documentation, tender and construction administration — so nothing is lost in the handover between teams.
- 01Concept & feasibility design
- 02Planning applications & consents
- 03Technical drawings & specification
- 04Tender, site delivery & handover
Typical engagement runs 12 – 36 months. We work in RIBA-aligned stages and are happy to join an existing design team at any point in the programme.
Before you commit land, capital or a decade, you need an honest read on what a site can carry. We test capacity, daylight, planning risk and cost per square metre — then tell you what we would do if it were ours.
- 01Site appraisal & capacity studies
- 02Planning risk & pre-application advice
- 03Sustainability & energy roadmaps
- 04Design review & second opinions
Delivered as a fixed-fee study, usually inside four to eight weeks, with a written report, massing options and an indicative cost envelope you can take to a board.
The inside is not decoration applied at the end — it is where the building is actually lived. We design interiors as spatial problems first: light, sequence, storage, acoustics, the path you take from the door to the desk.
- 01Spatial planning & layouts
- 02Bespoke joinery & detailing
- 03Materials, finishes & FF&E
- 04Lighting design & site styling
We keep a working material library in the studio and prototype joinery at full scale before it is made. Commissions range from a single apartment to a forty-room hotel.
Eighteen people. Three partners.
We are deliberately small. The people who draw your building are the people who visit the site, chair the meetings and sign the drawings.
Elena Marsh
Founding Partner
Trained at the AA and in Basel. Leads cultural and civic work; wrote our daylight-first design guide.
Daniel Okonkwo
Partner — Design
Joins concept to craft. Fifteen years across housing and adaptive reuse in Lagos, Rotterdam and London.
Mei Lin Chow
Associate — Interiors
Runs the interior studio and the material library. Obsessive about joinery tolerances and honest finishes.
Jonas Berg
Head of Technical
Turns intent into buildable detail. Leads site delivery, tolerances and our low-carbon concrete research.
Awards & citations.
Recognition is a by-product of the work, not the reason for it. Listed here because clients ask — and because the people who built these projects deserve the record.
RIBA International Prize Shortlist
Vessel Pavilion
CulturalDezeen Awards Cultural Building of the Year
Vessel Pavilion
WinnerAIA Honor Award Architecture
Coalhouse Lofts
WinnerArchitizer A+ Awards Residential — Multi-unit
Meridian House
FinalistWorld Architecture Festival Office Building of the Year
Northbank Offices
WinnerHKIA Merit Award Interior Architecture
Grey Gardens
MeritSwiss Design Prize Spatial Design
Fold Gallery
WinnerAR Emerging Architecture Practice of the Year
Studio-wide
ShortlistTell us about your site.
Press & new business
Studios
Queen's Road East, Wan Chai
20123 Milano, Italy
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Site visits by appointment
We reply to every project enquiry within two working days. If it is urgent, call +852 3000 1180.