OUR STORY
OUR ETHOS
Nostos. Homecoming.
Nóstos — Ancient Greek. The word Homer used for Odysseus's long journey home. Not the act of arriving somewhere, but the one of returning to a place and recognising yourself in it.
That's the only ambition this studio has ever had. Not to impose a style you'll recognise across a portfolio, but to design a home you recognise as yours — one that feels, after months of living in it, like it always was this way.
We don't measure success by awards or photographs. We measure it by whether you walk in one evening, months after we're gone, and feel like the house was never any other way.
WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT
Most people hiring an architect at this level are afraid of three things : that they'll be handed off to a junior, that no one will really listen to how they live, and that the vision they can feel but can't articulate, will stay vague until it's too late to fix. We built the studio around removing all three.
Understanding
over vision.
We don't have a signature style. We have a signature approach. Most studios arrive with an aesthetic already decided. We draw out what you already know about how you want to live, but haven't yet been asked to put into words.
Personal presence,
at every stage.
You paid for the principal. You get the principal. From the first coffee to the final snag list, Dimitri is the architect on your project — not a team, not an account manager, not a junior presenting work he hasn't reviewed.
The feeling,
not just the building.
Light, proportion, threshold, texture — the things you feel before you consciously see them. We treat these as the real materials of a home, not the finishing touches.
HOW WE WORK
A project with us runs through four stages, and Dimitri is present, personally, at every one of them. No stage is handed to someone else. No stage happens without you being able to reach the person actually doing the work.
1. We listen
Before any design conversation,
a conversation about your life.
2. We shape
Concept and design, tested against how you actually live, not just how the space should look.
3. We deliver
Construction and contract administration, protecting the design's integrity through
to completion.
4. We stay
Present until the last detail is right, not until the drawings are signed off.
WHAT WE DO
Concept Design
& Feasibility
Before anything is fixed, we test what's possible — against the site, the planning context, and the brief you've given us. Feasibility work here isn't a formality; it's where the right project gets found before money is committed.
Full Architectural Service
Full architectural service, start to finish: concept, planning, technical design and construction drawings, all led by the same principal, so the vision stays intact at every scale.
Full Interior Design Service
We oversee the sourcing and selection of furnishings, finishes and bespoke elements with a focus on quality and cohesion.
Every piece is chosen to contribute to a unified and considered interior language.
Project
Management
We provide strategic oversight across all stages of the project, aligning design ambition with programme, budget and execution.
Our role is to ensure that each project progresses seamlessly, from inception through to completion.
Contract
Administration
Every Construction contract, Valuation and Instruction is managed with the same rigour we bring to a drawing — protecting your budget and your position, not just the design.
Construction
Delivery
We guide projects from design intent through to built reality, ensuring that every detail is realised with accuracy and care.
Our involvement throughout the construction phase safeguards the integrity of the design at every stage.
WHO WE ARE
Our Studio
Studio Nostos is based at Michelin House, Chelsea — one of London's most recognisable addresses, and a fitting home for a studio that treats design as craft, not commodity.
We are a RIBA Chartered Practice
Holding the Institute's mark of accreditation for quality, insurance and professional standards — not just individually chartered, but chartered as a studio.
The practice carries full Professional Indemnity Insurance, giving clients the same protection they'd expect from any established firm.
We operate as a registered UK limited company, Studio Nostos Ltd, bringing the same rigour to how we run the practice as we do to how we run a project.
Behind every project is a small, multidisciplinary team working under one roof — architecture, interiors, and delivery, coordinated rather than outsourced. This way nothing gets lost in translation.
Creative Director
Dimitri Giorgalis — A RIBA Chartered Architect and ARB-registered, with over a decade leading high-end residential projects across London before founding the studio. Dimitri is personally involved in every project, from first conversation to final detail.
Operations
Our Operations Director oversees the running of the practice — programme, budget and coordination — so that design ambition stays matched to what's deliverable, on time and on budget.
Architecture
Our architectural work is led by qualified, ARB-registered architects, supervised throughout by Dimitri, ensuring every drawing meets the same standard whether it's the first sketch or the final construction detail.
Interior Design
A qualified interior designer works alongside the architectural team from the earliest stages, so that interiors are conceived as part of the building, not bolted on once the shell is finished.
International Practice
Our team includes architects qualified to sign off projects in Greece, alongside our UK-registered architects — meaning projects in Athens, Kolonaki or Filothei get the same personally-led, principal-reviewed process as a project in Chelsea, with the local qualifications each jurisdiction requires.
Together, it's a studio structured to take on serious, technically demanding projects — full refurbishments, listed buildings, new-builds across multiple jurisdictions — while keeping the thing our clients actually hire us for: one point of contact, and a principal who never leaves the project.
