Kyle Buchanan

Kyle is a Director at Archio and a passionate and skilled Architect, who was named RIBA South West Project Architect of the Year 2018. He is an RIBA Conservation Registrant with experience of working on Listed Buildings and in heritage contexts. His expertise in housing design has resulted in his appointment as a member of the RIBA Expert Advisory Group for Housing and as a Design Council Expert.

He pursues his passion for promoting outstanding design through his positions on Ealing, Kingston and Sutton Design Review Panels. He is an experienced design tutor and has run design units for undergraduate and postgraduate architecture courses at the Bartlett as well as being a visiting critic at schools including London Met, Cambridge and Oxford Brookes. 

Kyle has pursued his interest in working with communities by volunteering on the boards of community led-housing groups and local charities in London. He is currently a volunteer member of the Housing Ombudsman’s Resident Panel.

Mellis Haward

Mellis is a Director at Archio, and has led many of Archio's housing and community projects.

With her expertise in Urban Design, Listed Buildings and Planning Policy, she is a member of the Harrow, Hounslow and Tower Hamlets Design Panels, and the Hackney Regeneration Design Advisory Group, advising the councils on current applications and policy in the borough. She is also an AJ Architects Award Judge, Civic Trust Awards Assessor, a member of the Urban Design London Environmental Design Review Panel and a Design Council Specialist Expert.

Mellis has a particular interest in community engagement and has an expertise in running participatory design workshops, and along with Kyle, she was recognised in the Architect's Journal 40 under 40 list "celebrating the UK’s most exciting emerging architectural talent".

Within Archio, Mellis oversees the practice's internal management, with a focus on structured resourcing and wellbeing of the team. 

James Purkiss

James joined Archio in 2019 having graduated from the Bartlett, University College London, with a first class honours degree and a nomination for the RIBA Bronze Medal. He went on to complete his post-graduate studies at the University of Cambridge where he pursued a specialism in environmental design. 

James is Archio's Sustainability lead, having been Passivhaus trained and authoring our in-house Sustainability Briefing document. James became an Associate in Archio in 2022, and is leading our co-housing projects with TOWN and Squeezed London.

A passionate teacher, James has run workshops with primary school pupils and tree-house building sessions at a local youth centre. He has been an invited critic at a number of architecture schools and was a studio tutor at the Bartlett School of Architecture.

João Sá

João joined Archio in 2020 with practice experience spanning several countries, Portugal, Japan and the UK, where he has spent the last 8 years. João graduated with a Masters degree from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto (FAUP), Portugal, and started out working in Japan before moving to Portugal to work for architects Barbosa e Guimarães.

João has a passion for construction and all things technical, and is currently leading on projects for Southwark Council and London CLT in the detailed and construction phases.

João became an Associate at Archio in 2022, having led our Quality Management Systems, including achieving our ISO9001 accreditation.

Sarah Ahmed

Sarah joined Archio as an architectural assistant in 2021. She is a graduate of University College Dublin where she obtained her Masters degree in Architecture in 2019. Since, she has worked on a number of housing and masterplanning projects for Plus Architecture in Dublin and co founded the Sudan Art and Design Library Project where she is currently head of research.

Her interests in architectural design lie in the exploration of culture in the everyday and of larger definitions of identity and heritage especially when it pertains to community development.

Sarah believes in the inherent potential present in a multidisciplinary approach to being a good designer and, as an avid photographer and artist, is passionate about using these tools for good place making.

Sophie Baldwin

Saaya Kamita

Saaya Joined Archio in 2021 as a part-time studio manager. She has been in the design industry for 6 years around London. In her position of studio manager, she oversees, supports and manages daily operations.

Since having a son, she has become more aware of the importance the community brings and how architecture has a power to shape the neighborhood. Saaya has masters in Textiles and enjoys crafting and knitting.