Ola was founded in Melbourne in 2014 by Phil Snowdon and Manos Mavridis. What began in a backyard bungalow in Preston has grown into a studio working between Melbourne and Paris.

We design around people and place. The brief begins with understanding how someone lives, what a place asks of a building, and how both will change over time. The architecture follows from there.

Every project we take on is named early and spoken about in the studio like another presence in the room. It is a small ritual, but a useful one. It keeps the focus where it should be: on the life a building is there to hold.

Working between Melbourne and Paris has shaped how we think about architecture. Paris operates within a centuries-old architectural conversation, where every building responds to what came before it. Melbourne is more open, shaped by the warmth of domestic life and the way people actually want to inhabit a city. Together they have taught us that architecture must do both: endure and adapt.

Most of our work is homes, where life unfolds through routine, ritual and daily use. We also work across multi-residential, hospitality and institutional projects, carrying the same care and rigour into every scale. The sensitivity demanded by residential work sharpens how we approach everything else, and each scale makes the other better.

We work with clients who value substance over spectacle. People who want a practice that listens first and draws second, and who understand that considered design delivers better outcomes, practically, commercially and over time.

Craft, warmth and intelligence. That is the standard we bring to every project.