Welcome to Mae

We are pleased to announce that we have been selected as one of fifteen architecture firms shortlisted for NSW competition aimed at alleviating housing crisis. Selected from more than 200 entries the shortlisted practices will create designs for a terrace house or mid-rise apartment for 21st century NSW.

This is the first time the NSW Government has instigated the use of a pattern book to help improve housing. The idea behind a pattern book for building is to provide a fast track for construction by pre-approving selected designs, thereby cutting through red tape and lengthy development applications. Winners will be announced in November.

We are pleased to be a founder member of 'Architects' Action for Affordable Housing'

A good home is the foundation everyone should enjoy, a human right that too many are living without. As architects we recognise the role we can play in helping to improve housing through design, planning and advocacy. We have come together to demand that the next government do better. We are calling for positive change that will take a collective effort to achieve. Please join our campaign. Follow the link below.

Mæ Director Alex Ely has been invited to join this year's RIBA Stirling Prize jury alongside Muyiwa Oki, RIBA President, Mary Duggan, Mary Duggan Architects, David Light, Director of Autodesk and this year's sponsor, Minna Sunikka-Blank,Professor of Architecture and Environmental Policy at Cambridge University and Yana Peel, Global Head of Arts & Culture at Chanel.

The RIBA Stirling Prize jury changes each year and this year’s jury is made up of a range of leading experts who will visit each of the six shortlisted buildings. As 2023 winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize we are delighted to have the opportunity to engage with the award, the winner of which will be announced on 16th October.

We recently held our first B Corp® ‘Continued Improvement Plan’ workshop.

Since certifying in early 2024, our thoughts have been ‘what's next?’.

Taking inspiration from the proposed new B Corp® standards, our team gathered at Mæ’s Sands End Arts and Community Centre, and together we have outlined our future positive impact aspirations and objectives.

Over the next three years we will continue to embed high social and environmental standards in both our projects and throughout the practice. We will regularly publish Mæ’s impact statements, ensuring transparency and accountability.

We are delighted to see how many new B Corp® certified architectural practices there are now in the UK. We are already collaborating and supporting each other to make real change within the built environment industry, including delivering on the RIBA 2030 Challenge and Architects Declare climate pledges.

We hope to see many of our collaborators at the Louder Than Words B Corp festival in September.

Our Director Alex Ely has been profiled in Building magazine and BD online. In an interview with Ben Flatman he explores the evolution and future of the practice, working at the scale of the city to the room. He reflects on his influences from education, from his time and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and on the role architects can have in civic society.

Founder Director Alex Ely has been interviewed for Studio International magazine.

Studio was first published in April 1893 under the title The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art. It rapidly established itself as one of the most successful fine art periodicals in the English-speaking world.

Among others, it featured the work of the illustrator Aubrey Beardsley and the architects Charles Rennie Mackintosh and CFA Voysey.

In the interview with Veronica Simpson, Alex explores the secret to making buildings that other architects admire and envy, but which are dedicated to the greater good.