Who We Are

Spaceagency is an interdisciplinary design studio of 50+ graphic designers, architects, urbanists, product designers and visual communicators, working from studios in London, Milan and Hong Kong.

Over fifteen years we have grown organically from a two-person startup into one of the largest specialist consultants in wayfinding, user experience, placemaking and experience masterplanning. Our first commission was a wayfinding strategy developed alongside Zaha Hadid Architects in Cairo. Since then we have become one of a handful of studios to have shaped three consecutive World Expos, with delivered projects spanning Riyadh's giga-projects,  North America's West Coast and China. 

We create the user interface for the built environment.

Vision

We believe the human experience of a space is paramount. So we design from the bottom up, beginning with the person moving through a place rather than the plan above it.

Our team combines architecture and urban design with wayfinding and graphic communication. We analyse journeys to find the moments where people and place meet, then choreograph a consistent narrative across them — one that makes a space engaging, intuitive and enjoyable to move through. Working closely with our clients, we treat that journey as the thing being designed, not a by-product of the building.

We are driven by a passion for excellence and for re-imagining conventional ways of working, and we collaborate with like-minded architects, developers, brands and municipalities around the world.

Our Work

We help our clients make complex places simple, weaving each site's heritage and culture into the way people move through it.

Our work forms the physical and digital interface between a brand, the built environment and the people who visit it - which makes it an opportunity for our clients, whether municipalities, public institutions or private entities, to communicate their values and vision at the moment of encounter.

Delivering this means thinking across scales at once: from urban masterplanning and systems design down to the products, graphics and details a person reads from arm's length. From North America's West Coast to Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District and Riyadh's Expo 2030 - the same ethos, the same discipline, different ends of the world.

Team

Spaceagency was founded by Sarah Manning and Peter Feldmann, whose combined backgrounds in architecture, urban design, wayfinding and graphic communication shaped the interdisciplinary approach the studio still follows today.

Sarah and Peter continue to lead the London studio, supported by a dedicated management team. Nicola Lorusso heads our Milan studio, and Junyi Bai our [Guangzhou/Hong Kong] studio, each bringing the practice's shared methodology to their region while drawing on local knowledge, cultural context and client relationships built up over years in market.

Our studios are supported by dedicated specialist teams, including BIM, GIS, technology and materials specialists.

Agents

Our Story

Our journey began with a simple but radical idea: that the principles of user experience - so often applied to digital products - could transform the way people navigate and engage with physical space.

At the time, our founders were coming from two distinct but complementary worlds. Peter Feldmann, a German architect, was working at Future Systems, designing buildings and masterplans. Sarah Manning, an American living in London, was working at the think tank, Space Syntax, focusing on computational models that analyze how people move through and interact with space. It was during an early conversation that the idea sparked - to blend their expertise and reimagine how people navigate and experience physical environments. Not only designing for aesthetics or function, but for perception, emotion, and human behaviour.

The question: how can we design environments that truly respond to the people who use them - creating a UX/UI for the built environment?

That idea became a company.

Not long after, Spaceagency landed its first project - a collaboration with Zaha Hadid Architects on the wayfinding strategy for a large masterplan in Cairo. It was an ambitious start that confirmed the relevance of our vision - and our foresight about what was to come.

Informed by predictive modelling, we simplify the complexity of architectural space into intuitive, user-friendly models that help people read and navigate their environment with ease. At the same time, we unearth and communicate the deeper story - the history, essence, and genius loci behind each place - transforming journeys into emotionally engaging experiences. By blending architectural rigor with empathetic storytelling and inventive, user-centered designs, we create spaces that are not only intuitive and accessible but also rich with meaning, inviting people to connect more deeply with the places they inhabit.

We see architecture and cities as more than structures - they are active interfaces that connect people not only to physical space but also to the layers of meaning, story, culture, and human connection embedded within them. Our mission is to enhance how people perceive and experience the built environment by making it both understandable and meaningful.

Our office is comprised of an international team, expert in a range of design and research disciplines. This diversity provides us with unique insight, allowing us to approach the human experience of a space from different perspectives, finding and designing solutions from multiple angles. We believe that is at the edge where true innovation emerges.

"Spaceagency shared our enthusiasm for and commitment to design excellence. They were able to present numerous creative proposals which fulfilled the Design Team’s criteria in a way that helped to enhance many of the spaces."

Chris Lepine, Zaha Hadid Architects

Where We Practice

From Riyadh to the Pearl River Delta

Spaceagency is a design and research agency based in London, dedicated to designing a better world. We are a global practice, with projects spanning five continents.

The practice has a diverse and global client base, from the USA, UK, and Europe to the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. We work as both lead and sub-consultants, collaborating with an international network of design partners and clients who are at the forefront of innovation.

Two of our most significant current commissions sit at almost opposite ends of the world. In Riyadh, we're wayfinding consultants on the masterplan team for Expo 2030 — the third consecutive World Expo we've shaped, following Astana 2017 and Dubai 2020. In Hong Kong, we're developing the visual identity, wayfinding, and signage for the West Kowloon Cultural District, one of the region's most significant cultural destinations.