The Studio
Architecture as Memory
Muri i Gurit Studio is a London-based creative practice working across architecture, photography, restoration, material research and visual storytelling. Our name — meaning "Stone Wall" — reflects our belief in the enduring dialogue between built spaces and the passage of time.
Philosophy
We work with buildings, not upon them
Every building carries the accumulated weight of its history — layers of paint, worn stone thresholds, iron staining, sunlight patterns. We treat these traces not as imperfections to be erased, but as evidence of lived experience.
Our practice is rooted in careful observation. Before we design, we document. Before we intervene, we understand. The result is architecture that feels both new and ancient — buildings that acknowledge their past while embracing a considered future.
Our Camden Road studio occupies a restored Victorian warehouse — a building that is itself an ongoing project, a living laboratory for our approach to adaptive reuse.
Disciplines
Architecture
We design through intervention — working with existing structures rather than against them. Each project begins with deep listening to the building itself.
Photography
Our photographic practice is inseparable from our architectural work. We use large-format analog cameras to record the slow transformations of space.
Adaptive Reuse
We believe the most sustainable building is the one that already exists. Our approach transforms disused structures into living, breathing spaces.
Materiality
Stone, timber, iron, glass — every material carries a geological and cultural history. We study these histories as the foundation of our design language.
Restoration
Careful, considered conservation that respects the original intent while enabling new life. We work layer by layer, uncovering the stories held within walls.
Documentation
Through measured drawing, photography and written reflection, we create detailed records of buildings at every stage of their life.
Research
Material provenance, construction techniques, environmental performance — our research practice informs every design decision.
Craftsmanship
We collaborate with skilled artisans — stonemasons, joiners, metalworkers — who share our commitment to excellence and permanence.
Camden Road · London · In Progress
Resituation
A former garage on Camden Road is being repurposed — one half becomes the studio, the other a hand carwash. This is where we resituate.
restitution /ˌrɛstɪˈtjuːʃn/
Restitution means the act of restoring something to its rightful owner, giving an equivalent for damage or loss, or paying money to compensate for a wrong. It brings things back to how they were before.
The Brief
An existing building, given a second life.
The existing garage — weathered brick, steel trusses, a long low volume facing the street — had reached the end of its first use. Rather than demolish, we are resituating the structure: preserving its bones and splitting the volume into two adjacent programmes that share a single threshold.
One half becomes the new business — the Camden Road hand carwash. The other becomes our studio, a quiet room for drawing, material studies and restoration work.
392A Camden Road — Roof Section Drawing
01 — The Carwash
Camden Road Hand Carwash
The street-facing bay is retained as a working commercial front. New brass lettering, a restored roller door and a re-poured concrete apron keep the building legible to the road while opening it to a new trade.
02 — The Studio
Muri i Gurit Studio
The rear half is insulated, re-floored and lit from the existing arched window. A long drawing table, material samples and the restoration archive take the place of vehicles — the same volume, repurposed for craft.
The studio — within the existing garage volume. Camden Road, 2025.
Read the full restoration log.