FOUNDERS

We are a husband and wife duo of designers based in Hampstead, London where we live with our two young children River and Max.

We have a background in architecture and craft bespoke homes from the ground up.

Eschewing the conventional role of an architectural designer, we get personally involved in every aspect of our projects, from dreaming up an original concept to finding the right site and making the whole home, right down to the last detail. We are the dreamers, creatives and craftsmen of each project.

Our holistic method of working means that we retain complete creative freedom to bring our visions to life from their original, seed-like beginnings. We camp or live in the empty sites until we understand the context, light, volumes and temperature of the space, and travel to find objects, materials and inspiration.

This unique practice allows us to ‘feel’ our spaces before we begin designing and crafting — a process that imbues the end result with the effects of our strong emotional and physical bond to each home.

Our permanent home is in Hampstead where we live with our young family, but our sites are scattered.

We consciously work on just one project at a time every project and each is a journey, reflecting our changing interests in a particular place, idea, material and methods of making.

Read More about our thoughts and process of Home Making.

Zoe Chan Eayrs

Co-founder of Chan and Eayrs | Founder of Atelier ChanChan | AADipl | Scholar at the Architectural Association | Designer at Atmos Studio | MaCantab (Hons) Architecture, Scholar at the University of Cambridge | RIBA East Prize for Best Project | George Rylands Prize for Best Undergraduate by subject | Westminster School, London

Zoe, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am one half of Chan and Eayrs and live in Hampstead, London with Merlin (the other half of Chan and Eayrs) and our two young children Max and River.

I was born in Hampstead in 1985. The first place I was taken to upon leaving the hospital was a site my parents were looking to buy. My father was an architect and my mother was an investor, and they both loved buying buildings to do up. I remember going to lots of derelict spaces growing up, and dreaming of what they could become.

I studied architecture, a long course, and mid-way through school, desperate to build a physical project, I designed and built my first home in London. I sold it and used the proceeds to buy a couple of empty sites so that I would be able to design and make my next projects upon finishing my education.

I didn’t want to work at a conventional practice as I yearned for complete creative freedom and had always preferred working with the human and intimate scale of a home. So, I developed a model of practice where I was my own client, giving myself the space to design and craft out homes organically and entirely. How we work today has its genesis in this process.

What is your role?

I am the dreamer out of the two of us. Once I have a strong sense of the initial idea that will shape the project, I hunt endlessly to find the perfect site. I then work on the concept and design, nursing the seedling idea through planning and design development hurdles.

Merlin works on the making side, and we constantly communicate to make decisions and refine our designs together. Once the home is being made, I visit daily, helping with details on site whilst curating and choreographing the objects and artwork that complement the architectural elements.

Merlin Eayrs

Co-Founder Chan and Eayrs | Partner, Play Associates | Designer at DRMM Architects | Researcher for Liam Young, Unknown Fields Division | Researcher for Eyal Weizman in The Westbank | Unit master at The Architectural Association with David Greene (Archigram) | Unit master at Oxford Brookes with David Greene (Archigram) | AA Dipl. Architectural Association | Inchbald Interior Design School | Oundle School, Peterborough

Merlin, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am one half of Chan and Eayrs and live in Hampstead with Zoe (the other half of Chan and Eayrs) and our two young children Max and River.

I was born on my family’s farm in Cambridgeshire in 1982. Growing up in the countryside, I was very connected to the land and nature because physically tending to our environment was the norm. I would see my father making and repairing things on the farm every day: whether it was welding a 10-metre truss to restore a barn, fixing his tractor, or re-roofing the house, he would make and fix everything himself.

As the most creative member of my family, I moved to London to study architecture and immerse myself in a more stimulating environment. After a long architectural education, I taught at the Architectural Association and Oxford Brookes alongside David Greene whilst working at DRMM, and became very interested in the housing crisis in London, working on several social housing projects.

Longing for a more physical and intimate relationship to the spaces I created, I joined forces with a friend from school to work on a mews house, for which I designed and made everything, from the bespoke staircase to the hand-crafted cabinetry.

What is your role?

I spend my days on site, refining the designs of our homes through the process of making. I enjoy a sense of connection with the land and materials, understanding and learning how best to craft and shape them, and attending to every detail of every corner. I collaborate daily with Zoe on the designs, and collaborate with a team of specialised craftsmen, with whom I make our dreams a physical reality.