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Studio Sam Causer

@studiosamcauser

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Design-led, RIBA accredited Conservation Architecture practice.

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Very pleased that our conservation project in Blackheath has won Fabco Project of the Year 2026.

It’s always a pleasure to work with clients who are open to ideas, and with brilliant makers who help us push the design and work out how unusual things can actually be made.

At Blackheath, we worked closely with Carol and Dave, and @fabcosanctuaryltd, to develop a bespoke steel and aged mirrored glass screen, carefully fitted into an original curved niche in the house.

The mirrors reflect the original shuttered sash windows and views to the garden, while integrated double doors create a new connection between the sitting room and kitchen.

What looks like quite a small intervention has completely changed how the ground floor works - allowing light, views and conversation to move through the house, while keeping the character of the original rooms.

A lovely recognition for everyone involved, and particularly Liam in our studio, who developed the design with Sam, working closely with Carol and Dave and the makers at Fabco to bring it together.

Interior Design by homeowner, Carol.
Steel door by @fabcosanctuaryltd
Build by @readyfornew.co.uk
Distressed walls by @johnharragan_artist
Architecture by @studiosamcauser

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#architecture
#conservation
#interiordesign
#heritage
#londonarchitecture by @studiosamcauser

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11 hours ago

It’s very exciting working with Father Leigh and the dedicated team who keep St John the Baptist Church open and active, exploring what the future might look like for this extraordinary site at the top of Margate High Street.

We’ve been developing a feasibility study - looking at what’s already here: a church that’s been part of Margate for nearly 1,000 years, a much-used community centre, and over 10,000 square metres of churchyard and green space. And then at what might be missing, who uses the site now, who could use it in the future, and how it might better serve the community around it.

Historically, St John’s was deliberately stitched into the fabric of Margate - both spiritual and civic, connected to the town through open meeting places and the High Street. Over time, roads, walls and later development have increasingly separated it from the town around it.

So we’ve been asking:

- What could a church at the top of Margate High Street be for its community?

- What might it mean to sit at the intersection of two realities in Margate: a thriving visual arts scene and one of the most materially deprived communities in England?

- What might be the church’s place in connecting faith, art and activism?

Could its boundaries become more porous? Could the church, community centre and landscape work together rather than as separate pieces?

These are early ideas, not finished proposals. The project will develop through listening, testing and conversation with those who use St John’s, those who live and work around it, and those who might in future.

The site has been reimagined many times over the centuries. It feels like the start of an exciting new chapter.

An exhibition of the studies is at St John the Baptist Church until the end of October, including Sundays 10:00 to 12:00, with an open house on Saturday 17 October, 10:00 to 12:00.

Go have a look and let us know what you think. by @studiosamcauser

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5 days ago

We’re delighted to be one of only four practices in the UK Shortlisted for the RIBA Conservation Award, for our transformation of the Modernist Kensal House Community Rooms for SPID Theatre.

The Judges say: “The inaugural Conservation Award recognises exceptional projects that highlight the creativity, skill, and stewardship to protect a heritage building’s past, while ensuring its continued relevance and impact for current and future generations… Together, the shortlisted projects set an inspiring benchmark for how thoughtful restoration and adaptation can preserve our architectural legacy, while ensuring historic places continue to enrich communities for generations to come.”

The winning practice is announced alongside the Stirling Prize on 15th October. On behalf of community-led, socially-just conservation, our fingers and toes are crossed.

More information can be found via the link in our bio.

@riba
@ribalondon
@SPIDtheatre

#RIBA #RIBAConservationAward #ConservationArchitecture #Heritage #HistoricBuildings taken in SPID Theatre Company by @studiosamcauser

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2 months ago

One of the great joys of conservation work is witnessing craftsmanship firsthand. At this 1820s Margate terraced house, the original front door has been carefully repaired, prepared and refinished by Coast Projects and decorator Thomas using traditional fillers and paint, while new timber sash windows have been introduced only where the original fabric was beyond repair.

Although the outcomes are different, the principle is the same: Understand the material, assess its condition and make the right intervention for the building. Breathable, durable and derived from natural materials, linseed oil paint is well suited to both historic and new timber. The care, patience and expertise involved in every stage of the process is a reminder that good conservation is rarely about replacing old with new - that’s renovation - instead it’s about understanding what can be repaired, and how, so it can be appreciated for generations to come.

Main Contractor @coastprojectsuk
Decorator @tbbowdecorating
New Sash Windows @3planksltd
Brouns & Co @linseedpaint

#ConservationArchitecture #HeritageCraft #LinseedOilPaint #BuildingConservation #HistoricBuildings by @studiosamcauser

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3 months ago

We are grateful to the RIBA Journal for this feature on SPID Theatre, Kensal House Community Rooms - recipient of a 2026 RIBA London Award, with SPID Theatre also recognised as London Client of the Year.

A particular thank you to Amir Sanei, Architect and RIBA Judge, for such a thoughtful review of the project in the current issue of the RIBA Journal.

At its heart, this project is about care — for existing fabric, for social purpose, and for the communities that continue to give life to Kensal House.

Full article via the link in bio.

Photography: @morleyvonarchitecture @SPIDTheatre @studiosamcauser

@ribajournal @riba @ribalondon by @studiosamcauser

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4 months ago

“Acknowledging past histories and not erasing them”

We recently met Conservation Architect Sam Causer of @studiosamcauser, who let us into his 200-year-old townhouse in Margate.

Sam has spent the last 10 years restoring his 1820s home in Hawley Square - a building that has been a feather and fur factory, a Victorian boarding house, a solicitor’s office and a storage facility before he bought it in 2015.

Really interesting to learn about his restoration approach, guided by @spab1877 principles of light-touch conservation.

Nothing gets stripped back. Nothing gets made to look new.

Every layer, every scar, every mark of human activity - left deliberately in place.

His guiding question throughout has been simple: is this causing harm? If not, leave it. Understand it. Celebrate it.

For a building that has 200 years of life written into its walls, maybe the most respectful thing you can do is simply celebrate its history.

Read our full project article & watch our home tour with Sam here via the link in the description.

#architect #restoration #conservation #renovation #architecture taken in Margate, Kent by @studiosamcauser

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4 months ago

We’re incredibly proud to share that our conservation of Kensal House Community Rooms for SPID Theatre has won both a RIBA London Award 2026 and also the prestigious RIBA London Client of the Year Award 2026.

It’s been a privilege to help restore and re-imagine this remarkable Grade II* listed Modernist building - carefully improving accessibility, usability and long-term resilience while supporting the continued work of the extraordinary @spidtheatre team.

Designed by Edwin Maxwell Fry with housing reformer Elizabeth Denby in the 1930s, Kensal House has always embodied a spirit of social generosity, which makes celebrating SPID’s continuing role in this endeavour especially meaningful.

A huge thank you to our client, collaborators, consultants, specialists and contractors who helped deliver such an important community asset.

Architecture @studiosamcauser
Client and operator @spidtheatre
Structural Engineers @standengineers
MEP Engineers @orconsultingengineers
Quantity Surveying @appleyardandtrew
Fire Consultant @marshallfireltd
Below Ground Drainage @momentumstructuralengineers
Glazing @fabcosanctuaryltd

@riba @ribalondon

#RIBAAwards #RIBALondonAwards #ConservationArchitecture #ModernHeritage #AdaptiveReuse KensalHouse SocialHousing Architecture ListedBuilding taken in SPID Theatre Company by @studiosamcauser

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4 months ago

This 200-year-old townhouse in Hawley Square, Margate has been a feather & fur factory, a Victorian boarding house, a solicitor’s office - and now it’s the home and studio of architect Sam Causer. (@studiosamcauser)

But Sam hasn’t renovated it. Not in the traditional sense.

Guided by SPAB principles of light-touch conservation, every layer of history - the rabbit skin glue, the Victorian plumber’s pencil inscription, the rough-backed timber behind the wallpaper - has been left deliberately in place.

The question was never how do we make this look new? It was always what is this building trying to tell us?

A very interesting tour to watch, which is now live on our YouTube channel - link in our bio. taken in Margate, Kent by @studiosamcauser

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4 months ago

Post 5 of 5 on the Margate Winter Gardens
Creating Mixed-Use, Independent Spaces

We were appointed by Thanet District Council in 2024 to create a costed, ten-year masterplan for change at the historic Grade II listed Margate Winter Gardens. This work was completed before the Council’s decision in 2025 to sell the building to Westwood One, who are taking forward their own proposals.

Following conversations with barkeepers, hoteliers, restaurateurs, and cultural promoters in creating a review of the Thanet evening and night time economy for the Council, we helped develop a vision for how the Winter Gardens, as a driving venue in this sector, needs to adapt to support the needs of the Town and wider District. Key to this was maintaining its long-standing use as a mixed-use hall, for gigs and shows by night, but extend this more successfully into social, cultural, trade and other events during the day. The venue is in strong competition with other large halls throughout the south east, and needs to play to its strengths – its unique coastal location, its large, multi-venue complex, and its position within the Margate cultural community.

As the business model of recent decades has failed, losing money year-on-year, and not managing to keep up with routine maintenance, the Winter Gardens must become more efficient, better, and a more sustainable employer. Aside from significant repairs to the external fabric, especially the windows, concrete structure, decorative stucco, flat roofs, gutters, railings and cliff faces, It needs various fundamental changes, including: Ability to operate small areas independent of large areas; increased bar provision; more seating and standing capacity; more accessible and easy-to-find entrances and fire exists; better access for back-stage get-in and get-out; and zero-carbon mechanical & electrical services fit for contemporary expectations.

Taken together, these measures we developed with the Council should help the Winter Gardens and now its new owners continue to provide the experiences many of us so fondly remember, but also provide something new, in a more sustainable model, for decades to come. taken in Margate, Kent by @studiosamcauser

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8 months ago

Post 4 of 5 on the Margate Winter Gardens
Opening Up and Working within the Existing Fabric

We were appointed by Thanet District Council in 2024 to create a costed, ten-year masterplan for change at the historic Grade II listed Margate Winter Gardens. This work was completed before the Council’s decision in 2025 to sell the building to Westwood One, who are taking forward their own proposals.

The Main Hall, or Kings Hall, is the heart of the Winter Gardens. Opened in 1912 as a glistening white ‘wedding cake’ filled with sunlight filtered through a verdant, sunken garden with outdoor amphitheatre on one side, and the sea and setting sun on the other. Extended north over a blustery, north-facing terrace in the 1930s, with an elegant Modernist design, the principles remained the same.

Today the site is a sad vestige of the 1970s craze for sweaty, windowless, black box venues. Once inside, you would have no idea where you are, and most of the services are now inefficient or broken.

Key to our vision was to open up the building once more, to feel you’re in a garden by the sea, more attractive to daytime events while still being able to close up when needed. This expands the range of events and times of operation, encouraging visitors to the District at all times of day, throughout the year, in support of local jobs and visitor economy.

One reason the beautiful 1930s windows to the sea were blocked is because the bleacher (pull-out) seating blocks the view. We proposed instead to raise up new mezzanine of seating over a new Foyer Bar, and re-open the 1930s windows. Fixed seating would be more comfortable, and the fire escapes blocking the promenade could be removed, while increasing the floorspace for refreshments at critical pre-, mid-, and post-concert times. The way the site used to work is that the audience was cleared as soon as an event finishes, so the hall can be prepared for the next event. In our design, the bars surrounding the Main Hall can operate independently, meaning the audience can linger longer, spending more in the local economy, and helpfully disperse the huge rush of people at the end of an event. taken in Margate, Kent by @studiosamcauser

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8 months ago

Post 3 of 5 on the Margate Winter Gardens
Steps & Ramps off the Promenade, serving Independent Venues

We were appointed by Thanet District Council in 2024 to create a costed, ten-year masterplan for change at the historic Grade II listed Margate Winter Gardens. This work was completed before the Council’s decision in 2025 to sell the building to Westwood One, who are taking forward their own proposals.

A key part of our plan, developed in collaboration with business expert Bonnar Keenlyside, was to separate the site into different parts, which could be developed independently, funded and operated by independent businesses, open at different times of the day, and accessible from different entrances around the site. Of course the businesses would need to work together to support each other to host large events and festivals and so on, much as the local traders already do in any town centre, and especially so in Margate.

This approach would spread the required sources of funding across a wide network of smaller businesses, as well as spreading risk, rather than relying upon big investment from outside the district.

We produced this masterplan with this economic and social model in mind, from which emerged venues such as the East Bar, which would regain its front both to the north sea & promenade, and also to the sunny sunken garden in the south, helping to provide year-round enjoyment of the site, whatever the weather, run by people who live locally, in support of the local economy.

The way the site is currently structured, for any one part of the building to open, pretty much the whole thing needs to open, which means staffing and servicing the whole site, resulting in huge operating costs, and therefore very limited opening times, focussed only on when events are planned, for people with tickets. One of the main problems with this is that it’s hard for employees to rent a flat or manage paying the bills with a zero-hours contract. We instead encourage businesses which can open every day, all year round, not only to provide good quality jobs, but also to make the beautiful buildings and sites open and accessible all of the time. taken in Margate, Kent by @studiosamcauser

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8 months ago

Post 2 of 5 on the Margate Winter Gardens
New Entrance

We were appointed by Thanet District Council in 2024 to create a costed, ten-year masterplan for change at the historic Grade II listed Margate Winter Gardens. This work was completed before the Council’s decision in 2025 to sell the building to Westwood One, who are taking forward their own proposals.

Our masterplan was developed with business expert Bonnar Keenlyside and a core Team of Max Fordham, Appleyard & Trew, and CTP, and followed our Architectural Review of the building, part of a wider review of the Evening and Night-Time Economy of the District by Counterculture LLP.

The Winter Gardens was built in 1911 as an indoor entertainment venue, extending the summer holiday season with a large, glazed hall with views onto both the sea to the north, and a sunny, sheltered garden to the south. This unique form of building, carved out of a chalk cliff, set in a sunken garden, was designed to provide easy access from the promenade, as well as the clifftop walkways.

The building has been extended and altered substantially, completely cut off from its coastal surroundings as a windowless black box. Closed during the covid pandemic, the building now stands empty and is in need of a complete refurbishment, alongside a financially viable strategy in today’s economic and cultural climate.

Our strategy was to develop the site in phases as money allowed, with Phase 1 using £4m allocated from the Town Deal fund. The plan split the building into two parts: the Main Hall and the Queens Hall, allowing different businesses to operate independently in a mutually-beneficial way.

Phase 1 planned to reopen the Main Hall as a large, mixed-use, sea-view venue. Key to this was to re-purpose the 1930s North Extension as a light-filled, sea-view Foyer-Bar. An historic arcade would be re-opened through the building, connecting the Lower Promenade with the Sunken Gardens via a dramatic, long flight of steps and accessible ramps. This would improve permeability through the site and create intuitive and level access for all, in all weathers, and a vibrant, festival atmosphere around the building. taken in Margate, Kent by @studiosamcauser

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8 months ago