Tyen Masten Studio works at the intersection of form, culture, and systems.
Based in London and working internationally, the practice engages projects ranging from private homes and civic buildings to cultural institutions and urban frameworks. Across these varied contexts, the studio maintains a consistent architectural voice grounded in spatial intelligence, formal precision, and cultural depth.
Focus
Our work is structured around three core practice areas which define the studio’s range, design ethos, and approach to architectural thinking. While each area engages a distinct type of project, all are grounded in a consistent methodology that prioritises thoughtful resolution across scales.
Buildings and spatial environments, from private homes to civic institutions, shaped by design authorship, sculptural clarity, and material precision. The studio draws on experience delivering complex projects from concept through to completion.
Civic systems and cultural frameworks developed through spatial analysis, policy insight, and conceptual rigour. These projects often shape the groundwork for design briefs, institutional frameworks, or public programmes.
Visioning, framing, and early-phase design strategy for clients navigating complexity, from first principles to high-level positioning. These engagements help structure ambition and establish project direction before design is fully defined.
This model is not intended to divide the work, but to articulate the different ways the studio engages with complex briefs. In many cases, a project may move fluidly between areas, or encompass elements of more than one. Together, they express a practice that is design-led, strategically engaged, and grounded in built form.
Project Archive
The archive reflects over two decades of design experience across residential, civic, and cultural contexts.
Architecture and Design
Urban Strategy and Research
Design Advisory and Concept Development
Earlier Professional Experience (Zaha Hadid Architects, 2004–2012)
Approach
The studio begins with enquiry. Observing, distilling, and reframing the conditions that shape a project. Architecture becomes a structure for thought, aligning site and brief, context and intent, idea and outcome.
Each project balances conceptual clarity with formal resolution, privileging coherence over novelty and direction over decoration. The process is rigorous, adaptive, and grounded in both architectural thinking and built experience.
Architectural Intelligence
Design is treated as a form of structured thinking. Each project is grounded in research, spatial analysis, and conceptual clarity. Balancing design intuition with systemic logic. The studio moves fluently between typology and scale, always working toward meaningful and resolved outcomes.
Formal Clarity
Projects are defined by sculptural precision, material discipline, and spatial coherence. Form is not treated as style, but as a tool for communicating hierarchy, legibility, and long-term presence. The aim is to create work that is both distinct and enduring.
Contextual Responsiveness
The studio engages deeply with context. Not to mimic it, but to respond with architecture that is grounded, intelligent, and resonant. Local cues, social patterns, and cultural history are interpreted with design authorship and strategic clarity.
Strategic Adaptability
Each project is approached through a structured but flexible process. The studio works confidently within complex conditions. Adapting to uncertainty, refining in dialogue, and responding without compromising authorship.
Cultural Contribution
Architecture is a cultural act. Each design reflects and shapes the values, narratives, and relationships embedded in its context. Through built work, teaching, writing, and public dialogue, the studio contributes to broader cultural discourse.
Director Bio
Tyen Masten is an architectural designer and studio director with over two decades of experience leading design-focused projects across the UK, United States, Middle East, and Europe. He is the founder of Tyen Masten Studio, an internationally recognised practice working across residential, cultural, and urban contexts. The studio is known for its thoughtful process, formal clarity, and ability to bring direction and precision to complex briefs.
Prior to establishing his own practice, Tyen worked with Zaha Hadid Architects and has taught at leading institutions including the Architectural Association in London. His work spans buildings, spatial frameworks, and research, shaped by a consistent architectural voice and a belief that design can clarify complexity, give form to thought, and respond with care to context and culture.
Positions and Appointments
Academic Appointments
Academic Engagements
Education
Awards and Recognition
Exhibitions and Installations
Talks and Lectures
Publications and Writing
Partners
The studio works with clients who are curious, design literate, and invested in thoughtful outcomes. These include private individuals, institutions, developers, and public bodies seeking design clarity, cultural intelligence, and spatial precision.
Each commission is shaped by a shared belief in the long term spatial and cultural value of design. The studio brings direction, authorship, and strategic clarity to every project, whether built, conceptual, or systemic, creating architecture that is both exacting and responsive, grounded in context and open to possibility.
Clients and Commissioners
Alessi Arte Sella Boston Consulting Group Boutique Haute Horlogerie The Box SOHO City of Haikou City of Miami Beach Dosterras Winery Dubai Properties École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Exhibition and Travel Group Finnegan Associates Glasgow City Council Highland Council Juice Rodriguez KSA — Ministry of Tourism MOMA PS1 National/Network Rail (see note) NEOM New Cyprus Archaeological Museum Phoenix Prime PIMCO Property Integrated Management Razvoj Golf D.O.O. RCRC — Royal Commission for Riyadh City REMAT Rooya Group Sama Dubai Shuwaikh Gate Holding Syndicut London The Thackeray Estate Tianjin Municipal People’s Government Toy Room Transport for London Tsinghua University Urban Confluence
Project Partners
Adams Kara Taylor (AKT) Alexandra Steed Urban ARJ Construction ARUP ARUP Foresight Buro Happold Davis Langdon EB7 Elliott Wood Partnership Engineeria Furness Green Partners Gross Max Hoare Lea Illumination Works Kuwait Engineering London Structures Lab Meinhardt Newtecnic Oekoplan Architecture Seam Lighting Space Agency Squint Opera Sterling Services
Academic and Cultural Institutions
ArchDaily Architectural Association Architectural Digest (Spain) Architects’ Journal Association of Architecture Organizations (AAO) Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) BCSA — British Constructional Steelwork Association British Gypsum Building Construction Design Cambridge School of Architecture (University of Cambridge) CLAD Global Elle Décor (Spain) Elle Décor (USA) European Museum Academy European Museum Forum (EMF) — organiser of EMYA Instituto Cultural de Baja California KTH Royal Institute of Technology — School of Architecture London Festival of Architecture London School of Architecture Museum of African Design Museum of Architecture Negroni Talks New London Architecture RIBA RIBA Journal Royal College of Art SCI — The Steel Construction Institute SHOWStudio SPA Business UCLA — University of California, Los Angeles Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien Università Iuav di Venezia (IUAV) University of Colorado Boulder University of Florence (TAeD) Wallpaper* Wandsworth Council
Design-led architecture for cities, systems, and people.
Form. Clarity. Direction.
Contact