Foolscap Studio

Australia

Founded in 2009 by Director Adèle Winteridge, Melbourne-based Foolscap Studio is an independent, cross-disciplinary design practice centred around the built environment and interior architecture at all scales. The passionate team comprises design and brand strategists, architects, designers and interior architects, all working together toward a collective mission: to develop places that bring people together and contribute to an environment’s identity.

Foolscap Studio works closely with its clients to conceive and deliver commercial, hospitality, residential and public domain projects. Ranging from retail and food experiences through to public activation, workplace and macro precinct strategies, the diverse portfolio of works showcases the studio’s capacity to deliver designs that tell a story of space, place and identity. Sustainable, human-centred design is at the forefront of each spatial experience the studio delivers.

Rigorous research techniques and fearless experimentation form the backbone of innovative processes, culminating in unique and captivating outcomes for clients. Foolscap Studio often works at the intersection of typologies, bringing hospitality design principles into residential projects, home comforts into workplace, theatre into retail – and sometimes a healthy dose of everything rolled into one. By doing so, the aim is to challenge perceptions and interrogate the norms of what social spaces can offer people in the future.

Documentarian Norm Stahl defined his ‘Foolscap Method’ as “a way to get a big project started”, using a single sheet of the imperial-sized paper to “hold the outline of an entire novel”. Channeling this same methodology, the focus of Foolscap Studio is a complete, beginning-to-end journey. The work therefore isn’t defined by a particular aesthetic, but instead a deep investigation into narratives surrounding the client’s identity, their clients and end-users – and the needs of the broader community.

Entering into its second decade, Foolscap Studio continues to design emotionally powerful spaces that surprise and delight. The studio interweaves concepts and aesthetics with depth and personality, making spaces feel old, new and timeless all at once.

Photography: Penny Lane, Tom Blachford, Willem Dirk du Toit