Estudio ESSE is a Europe-based architecture and design studio. Founded by Ecaterina Stefanescu and Sam Eadington in 2015, the studio is concerned with how ideas engage with the world. Each project sees the designers fully immerse themselves in the contexts they hope to affect, enabling them to respond with specificity and empathy. The design work focuses on aspects of hands-on making, experimentation and first-hand research, with an underlying belief in the responsibility of the designer to create an equitable society.

ir. Ecaterina Stefanescu is currently a lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. Ecaterina graduated Cum Laude from TU Delft in 2018. Her final project, completed within the Chair Interiors Building Cities and titled “The Imaginary History of the Lost Bathhouse of Maastricht” was preselected for the Archiprix award. She graduated with a First Class degree in Architecture from the University of Huddersfield (2014), and her final Bachelor project was nominated for an RIBA West Yorkshire award. She has worked in Leeds, London, Bucharest and for DaF-architecten in Rotterdam, and is currently based in Preston.

ir. Sam Eadington graduated with a Master’s degree from TU Delft in 2019, where he also worked as Chief Editor for Bnieuws, the faculty periodical. Sam worked throughout Europe, most notably in Slovenia for OFIS Arhitekti. Sam’s Bachelor project, completed with a First Class degree at the University of Huddersfield in 2015, was nominated for the President’s Medal. In 2016 Sam won a West Yorkshire Society of Architects Scholarship to research the sprawl condition of the Costa del Sol in Spain. This lead to his TU Delft graduation project, within the Chair of Interiors Buildings Cities, which looked at ways of using abandoned structures to create places for community gathering. He has also been working as a freelance writer for Design Exchange Magazine since 2015 and is currently based in Berlin where he collaborates on a number of art and design projects.