The Practice
Bark + Bay Architects is a RIBA Chartered Architecture Practice based around the coastal towns of Salcombe and Topsham in Devon.
We are experts in creating refined, distinctive homes in beautiful locations, for people who love these landscapes as much as we do.
Bark + Bay was founded by two lifelong friends, Ed Barker + Mike Bayly, with a shared vision to create homes that feel rooted in the landscape and attuned to the way people really live. Formed by uniting our own individual and successful practices - South West Studio and StudioExe - we bring together over 15 years of experience in designing homes across Devon and Cornwall.
Our experience spans coast and countryside: from new-builds to renovations, historic listed properties to contemporary. We specialize in low-energy designs and have extensive experience in Passivhaus-standard design, helping create comfortable, future-focused homes with lower environmental impact and running costs. Projects have spanned the locations of Salcombe, Topsham, Dartmouth, Padstow and Exeter, as well as rural parts of the South Hams, East Devon, Dartmoor and Cornwall.
While every project is different, our approach is consistent: we work closely with you to create and deliver your dream home, in a collaborative and communicative way that allows you to enjoy the process.
We are efficient, personable and professional, delivering the highest levels of service to you, our clients.
Your Bark + Bay home will be sophisticated and architecturally distinctive, yet easy to live in and entirely reflective of your individual needs and your life.
Who are Bark + Bay?
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Mike (the ‘Bay’ in Bark + Bay) is a talented architect who prides himself on getting the job done in a calm, positive way.
With a super practical outlook, he loves bringing together the right people to make your project a success. He has specialist experience in low energy Passivhaus design.
Happiest when out in the open air, enjoying quality time with family and friends, Mike can often be found on his boat exploring the delights of Topsham and the River Exe.
Before relocating to the South West, Mike worked at award-winning residential and commercial practices in Sydney and London, before achieving Associate Director status at an Exeter practice.
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Ed (the ‘Bark’ in Bark + Bay) is a big man with big ideas.
An architect with endless enthusiasm and positivity, he will work with you to really understand your needs, and make them a reality.
Prior to life in the South West, Ed was an Associate at a top private residential practice in London. There he worked on projects including: high-end, high-value residential schemes across Notting Hill, Holland Park and the Home Counties; restaurants for celebrity chefs in Somerset House; glamorous country hotels and members’ clubs for the Soho House Group.
He has also worked at architects’ firms in Dublin, Sydney and tropical Queensland. He has a love of Australian architecture, and brings the sunny optimism of its people and to the architectural scene here in Devon + Cornwall.
Before founding Bark + Bay, both Ed and Mike spent time separately working as residential architects in Australia, and they studied together at university in Melbourne.
Living in Australia they found a place where the line between indoors and out is instinctively blurred, and where architecture is often sought to respond to light, landscape and lifestyle in equal measure.
The parallels to life in the South West were instantly familiar. A deep connection to the outdoors. Life shaped by the water, whether that was 6am swims, evenings at the beach or rooms that open wide to pull in the breeze.
Shingle House, Exeter
The Moult, Salcombe
Why “Bark + Bay”?
On a simple level, Bark + Bay is a nod to our surnames as founders. After all, there’s a tradition in architecture for using names to front a practice. But the name also reflects what matters to us most: a connection to place, to nature, and to the way people live within it.
‘Bark’ speaks to the natural materials we work with, the importance of sustainability in our designs, and the grounding presence of trees and woodland in the landscapes we design for.
‘Bay’ evokes the water. The estuaries, coves and coastlines of Devon and Cornwall that shape so much of life here. It’s also about the sense of openness and calm, and the gentler flow of life here.
Together, Bark + Bay encapsulates our values, our approach and our inspirations.
Who we design for
Many of our clients feel innately drawn to life in Devon and Cornwall, whether born here, relocating or returning, or simply creating a space to live more slowly from time to time. They care about how a home feels, as much as how it looks. They notice light, materials, views, and they want a home that sits lightly in the landscape. A home that works quietly and efficiently, from a lifestyle and a financial perspective alike.
Our clients value the sophisticated, high-end design experience and service levels that Bark + Bay offer, fused with the relaxed South West lifestyle.
Some people come to us with a clear vision, others just a feeling of how their future life might look. Either way, we guide the process with care and clarity. Our clients trust us to bring the detail and a shared respect for place, people and planet. Residential architectural is always personal really, because we are creating not just houses but homes and the lives lived in them.
Client testimonial:
“Ed made an invaluable contribution to the project. He has a keen and sympathetic aesthetic eye as well as being extremely practical.
He is a good listener and always eager to understand the client brief before assessing the practicalities and likely cost of implementation. Ed was on site every week, tracking progress, trouble shooting and generally dealing with any design issues. He was brilliant at dealing with the contractors and members of the professional team – a rare skill. He also dealt superbly with planning officers, deftly steering them (and us) in the right direction.
We became very fond of Ed. He is extremely good company and a pleasure to be around.
We would recommend him for any project requiring an architect without any hesitation and would count any client who engages him as very fortunate indeed.”
MM, New-build private house
Client testimonial:
“Throughout the hideously complex project. You had every detail at your fingertips, and you kept us focussed and on track - but in the most charming and effective way.
Everyone involved, whether they acknowledge it or not, owe you a huge debt of gratitude and respect; and you can be sure that we, the demanding and irritating clients, are well aware of our part of that debt. We salute you.
You can be sure that we will enthusiastically promote you, if we ever hear of a project that might interest you.”
MH, New-build private house