About Us

Local Works Studio was established in 2017 and brings an innovative approach to the design of landscapes and buildings, focusing on the creative and sustainable use of resources.

Our practice was formed as a partnership between a landscape architect and a building craftsman. We are makers and thinkers who design places with people. We are optimistic, collaborative, creative and inquiring.

Loretta Bosence

BA(hons), MFA, MALA

Director

Loretta is a landscape architect, committed to applying circular economy principles to landscape and building projects. She is a thesis tutor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and in 2017 won a national Landscape Institute award for her writing on vernacular placemaking and planning. Loretta trained in Landscape Architecture at the University of Greenwich.

She enjoys working with a wide variety of people to realise projects with a high degree of stakeholder participation. She recently worked with multidisciplinary design practice, The Decorators, delivering community co-designed placemaking strategies for large GLA funded public realm projects in Barking & Dagenham and Camden.

Loretta is a skilled, resourceful maker and designer who enjoys working hands-on in the landscape. She has a background in sculpture and photography, and trained to masters level at the Slade School of Fine Art. Loretta formerly ran a garden design and build business specialising in experiential learning environments and has studied advanced practical horticulture.

Ben Bosence

BA(hons), MA(RCA)

Director

Ben brings his enthusiasm for vernacular ingenuity and knowledge of material invention to any project, designing new materials, structures, features, finishes and processes to suit any scale and application.

Prior to forming Local Works Studio Ben created and ran a well respected building conservation company repairing historic buildings throughout the UK and Europe: Bosence Building Conservation. He has also managed a large architectural terracotta workshop in Brighton, working on the design and production of traditional, moulded terracotta and bricks for restoration projects.

Ben’s creative practice was informed by an education at the Royal College of Art in London, and he continues to research and innovate within his specialist field both in the repair of vernacular buildings and in developing new architectural and landscape-led design projects using local materials, waste, crafts, and people.

Matilda Grover

BA(hons)

Crafts technician & Project assistant

Matilda is an experienced designer maker, specialising in community engagement and sustainability. Since graduating in 3D Design and Craft from University of Brighton, Matilda has co-facilitated a variety of community workshops for the University of Brighton in South Africa, Museum of London and Making Lewes Festival.

She is currently co-ordinating workshops, to engage community groups in craft and making in Newham, as part of a borough-wide co-designed regeneration project. Improving public spaces together

Ashley Kempton

BA(hons) Education

Workshop Manager

Ashley runs our prototyping and fabrication workshop, which forms a major part of our studio, and enables us to test processing and making techniques using by-products and landscape materials.

With a background in construction and landscaping, Ashley has a diverse range of skills and a broad material knowledge. He has a passion for sustainable design and thrifty processes that remove or use waste.

Ashley has a training in education and has worked as a Widening Participation Ambassador for the University of Brighton, within local primary schools, and spent 5 years working at Owslwick School and Children’s Home, supporting young people with social, emotional, behavioural and sensorial needs, promoting positive outcomes for the future.

Georgemma Hunt

BA(hons) Architecture (ARB Part 1)

Material & Circular Economy Researcher

Georgemma is currently studying for a Masters in Sustainable Architecture (ARB Part 2) at the Centre for Alternative Technology. She joins us part-time, assisting and leading on research phases across the studio’s portfolio of projects, as well as developing material strategies and our in-house material archive.

Collaborators & project partners

We regularly draw on a wide network of trusted collaborators and specialist consultants to help us deliver projects:

FFLO, The Decorators, Assemble, Webb Yates Engineering, Social Broadcasts, Elliott Wood, AOC, Astula Architecture, Community 21, Two Design, Sara Ekstrand, Office S&M, Carver Haggard, Europa, SOAD University of Brighton , Dubbel Creative, Veolia, Baker Brown architects, Timber Structures, Studio Supernatural, Carmody Groarke, Sarah Price Landscapes, OHLA Landscape Architecture, BC Materials