Citizens Design Bureau

Founded in 2013 by the Liverpool-born architect Katy Marks, Citizens Design Bureau is a team of architects, interior designers and new-enterprise strategists who connect with communities to create architecture with personality. Whether it’s a design strategy for a community housing project or the redevelopment of a landmark arts space, Citizens Design Bureau is the practice you turn to if you want to create architecture that embodies the soul of an organisation or community, while being rigorously practical and bringing joy to the people that will use it. 

Building on their experience of how sustainability and social value can enhance commercial viability rather than threaten it, Citizens Design Bureau creates spaces that are made to be used, lived in and loved. They explore the distinctive chemistry of the people and places where they work, with an approach rooted in collaboration and immersive engagement.

Citizens Design Bureau has built a reputation for its projects in arts and community spaces, including Jacksons Lane Theatre, the V&A Gilbert Galleries, Manchester Jewish Museum and the new BEAM Hertford arts centre, shortlisted for the 2026 Stirling Prize.

Zetteler is delighted to be working with Katy and her team, as they continue pursuing an ecologically intelligent, community-led and refreshingly humane approach to architecture.

citizensdesignbureau.net