About · Studio

Office · Founded London 2008

A small studio,
quietly attentive
to the way we build.

Practice

MQA Studio is an architecture and interiors office founded in 2008 by Maria Quintero and Anders Lindgren. The studio operates from a single ground-floor workspace in Clerkenwell, London, with a deliberately small permanent team of seven.

Our work is shaped by long timeframes, restrained material palettes, and careful documentation. We commission photography on every project — not as marketing, but as a record. Buildings are read again, decades after completion, in our annual editorial volumes.

We accept three to four new commissions a year. We do not enter open competitions. Most projects are referred privately by clients, peer architects or institutional partners we have worked with before.

Approach

We do not begin a project with a form. We begin with a brief, a site, a conversation, and a long period of quiet observation. The studio's role is curatorial as much as authorial — selecting what to include, what to leave alone, and what to make new.

Every commission is paired with a permanent in-house editor. They are not a writer. Their task is to keep the studio honest about what the work is, and to ensure each building is documented in a form usable by future scholarship.

01 / Founding partner

Maria Quintero

Architect · MQA

02 / Founding partner

Anders Lindgren

Architect · MQA

03 / Senior associate

Yuki Tanaka

Architect · MArch

04 / Editor

Catherine Ó Faoláin

Editor · Archivist

05 / Associate

Ravi Bhattacharya

Architect · Interiors lead

06 / Architect

Lena Brandt

Architect · Detailing

07 / Architect

Tomás Henriques

Architect · Bid & build

— / Studio operations

Office

Visit by appointment

Selected timeline

2008

Studio founded by Maria Quintero & Anders Lindgren in a shared space in Bethnal Green.

2011

First built work completed: Glass House restoration consultancy, New Canaan, CT.

2014

Move to current Clerkenwell premises. Interior practice opens under Ravi Bhattacharya.

2017

Acoustic consultancy completed for the Elbphilharmonie restoration phase.

2019

Editorial archive Volume 01 — Threshold — published with Lars Müller, Zurich.

2023

Sound installation contributed to the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale.

2024

RIBA International Award for Excellence — cited for the Elbphilharmonie work.