People · Podcast guest
Nicholas Stockley
Managing Director · Design Squared Architects
Founder of Design Squared Architects, co-founder of RESI and founder of Front Load.
- Current role
- Managing Director
- Practice
- Design Squared Architects
- Location
- London, UK
- On the podcast
- 1 episode · 2023
The story so far
The path behind Nicholas's work.
Nicholas Stockley is the founder of Design Squared Architects, a small London practice specialising in high-end residential design that he set up in 2008. He started out through an apprenticeship as an architectural technologist before reading architecture at Leicester, and built Design Squared from freelance residential work into an established studio that employs ARB and RIBA architects.
Alongside the practice, Nicholas co-founded the homeowner platform RESI and now runs Front Load, a venture focused on streamlining design delivery and helping homeowners, buyers and estate agents understand a property's development potential. He is an architectural technician rather than a chartered architect, and talks candidly about building a business in a competitive, and often underpaid, sector.
Episode 0193 · Architecture Social · 52:53
Bricks to Bytes: A Journey in Architecture and Entrepreneurship
Starting an architecture-related business can look appealing from the outside, but the reality is a mix of client work, delivery quality, cash flow, fixed costs and constant commercial decisions.
Inside the conversation
6 moments to start with- 01
00:00 · Introduction to architecture and entrepreneurship
- 02
05:00 · Apprenticeship routes and early career lessons
- 03
10:00 · Starting businesses and learning from mistakes
- 04
15:00 · Education, creativity and building client relationships
- 05
20:00 · Teamwork, business ownership and early ventures
- 06
25:00 · Building a platform and adapting through Covid
Profile in brief
The work and context behind Nicholas's conversation.
- Current role
- Managing Director
- Practice
- Design Squared Architects
- Location
- London, UK
Continue exploring
Meet the practice behind the work.
Design Squared Architects is a small, close-knit Architecture practice in London
- City of London
- Commercial
- Residential (High-end)
- Residential (Private Homes)
Podcast · moments that play
Start where the idea starts.
- 05:00Nicholas Stockley · Audio onlyListen from 05:00 in the full episode.
Apprenticeship routes and early career lessons
- 10:00Nicholas Stockley · Audio onlyListen from 10:00 in the full episode.
Starting businesses and learning from mistakes
- 15:00Nicholas Stockley · Audio onlyListen from 15:00 in the full episode.
Education, creativity and building client relationships
- 20:00Nicholas Stockley · Audio onlyListen from 20:00 in the full episode.
Teamwork, business ownership and early ventures
- 25:00Nicholas Stockley · Audio onlyListen from 25:00 in the full episode.
Building a platform and adapting through Covid
- 30:00Nicholas Stockley · Audio onlyListen from 30:00 in the full episode.
Delivery models, outsourcing and controlling fixed costs