Studio
A practice built on material knowledge. Six people, eight projects a year, and every specification written by hand.
Thea Katsaros
A practice built on material knowledge.
Exousia was founded in 2016 by Thea Katsaros. The practice takes on eight projects a year — a number that has not changed since founding — and Thea writes every specification herself. The limit is not a business decision. It is what allows her to hold every material decision in a project in her head at the same time.
The studio works across residential, commercial and hospitality projects. The common thread is not typology but approach: we start with materials rather than mood. What a room is made of determines how it ages, how it sounds, and whether anyone wants to sit in it in ten years. Most of our decisions get made holding a sample, not looking at a render.
The practice is based in Collingwood, in a former warehouse on Peel Street. The studio occupies the first floor. The sample library is on the ground floor and available by appointment to architects and designers working on projects that intersect with our materials.
- 2016
- Six
- Eight
- Collingwood
Four positions we design from.
We begin every project by identifying the materials the space will be made of. The list determines the palette, the palette determines the proportions, and the proportions are what the room becomes. Starting with a mood board inverts this process and produces rooms that feel assembled.
A room finished in January 2024 should look better in January 2034 than it did when the client moved in. This means selecting surfaces that develop rather than deteriorate — stone that silvers, timber that deepens, brass that darkens at the points of contact.
Our best work has come from constrained briefs. A small apartment, a tight budget, a difficult floor plan. When there is no room for accumulation, every decision has to earn its place. We treat scarcity as a design parameter.
We do not have a house style. The Carlton North terrace and the Gertrude Street bar share a material discipline but look nothing like each other. The design should be a response to the site, the light, the client’s specific use, and the building’s history.
Six people, one sample library.
Thea studied architecture at Melbourne University and worked in London and Tokyo before founding Exousia in 2016. Her practice is defined by a belief that material decisions are design decisions — that how a room is made determines how it ages.
Marcus joined in 2018 after five years in the Sydney practice of a notable residential architect. He leads the documentation process and has a particular interest in structural interventions that open space without adding area.
Clem came from furniture design and still thinks in objects first. She runs most of the procurement and specification work and has developed deep supplier relationships across stone, timber and textile.
Sasha is in her second year with the practice, having graduated from RMIT. She writes most of the first-round specifications and manages the sample library.
Start a conversation
We take on a limited number of projects each year. If you have a site and a brief, we would like to hear from you.