INTERVIEWS | MASTERS & MUSES | WORLD OF CABANA
From creating atmosphere and choosing paint colors, to salvaging architectural materials, Maria Speake, co-founder of Retrouvius, talks Sara Pierdonà through the steps it takes to build beautiful, layered homes and a successful design brand - now celebrating its first book. ![]()
BY SARA PIERDONÀ | MASTERS & MUSES | 15 SEPTEMBER 2025
A beautiful house on the Isle of Harris, designed by Retrouvius © Rizzoli; 'Retrouvius: Contemporary Salvage: Designing Homes from a Philosophy of Re-Use'
Retrouvius, the much-admired London-based design studio and architectural salvage company, was founded with a spirit of idealism that has remained constant throughout its history. Established in 1993 by Maria Speake and Adam Hills, then architecture students in Glasgow, the company emerged as a response to the unchecked and widespread destruction of historic buildings and quality materials. Operating within the grey areas of private salvage initiatives, it began to champion the cause of reuse and reclamation.
Over the years, the husband-and-wife team built a reputation in the fields of architectural conservation and interior design, developing a style rooted in the retained memory of objects, the allure of patina, and the creative potential found in reimagining the uses of the discarded. The work has never been easy, but the couple were driven by their mission: “Salvage is manual, slow, unglamorous, and logistically difficult, but it is also immensely rewarding," Adam explains. "There’s undoubtedly a feel-good factor that comes from taking something unloved and cherishing it.”
As illustrated in their forthcoming book, published by Rizzoli, Maria and Adam have, over more than three decades, realised ambitious and highly original projects, often in collaboration with other creatives such as Bella Freud and Helena Bonham Carter, all drawn to inhabit spaces rich in imagination and layered with history.
At Retrouvius, is the salvage or interior design most important?
"At the very beginning, our main focus was simply on saving the materials. We were acting more like salesmen than interior designers, throwing out suggestions like, “you could do this, you could do that.” But over time, it became frustrating to see how the materials were actually used. Often, the choices felt conservative, or just less imaginative than they could have been. There was a lack of adaptability, of mental gymnastics.
"We were more willing than our clients to envision alternative uses – like turning a material meant for roofing into a staircase. Most customers had a more literal mindset: “This is an old floor, so we’ll use it as an old floor. This is a fireplace, so we’ll keep it as a fireplace.” And so our work gradually changed shape, becoming more far-reaching."
A beautiful house on the Isle of Harris, designed by Retrouvius © Rizzoli; 'Retrouvius: Contemporary Salvage: Designing Homes from a Philosophy of Re-Use'
How do you strike a balance between the aesthetic direction you want to give to a project and the need to use recycled materials?
"There are three key elements at play: first, the client and their aspirations for the project; second, the building itself (some structures are playful and open to a completely new aesthetic, while others, perhaps 400 years old, demand a certain level of respect and care); and third, the materials we work with.
"Salvaged pieces that still need to feel appropriate. They don’t necessarily have to come from the same era, but ideally, they should reflect the same spirit as the house. These are the three forces that shape the process. On paper, it might sound like a constant compromise, but in reality, it all comes together in a way that feels spontaneous."
The Retrouvius headquarters and store in West London © Retrouvius
How and where do you source your architectural salvage?
"We’re slightly dependent on Adam’s mood, like whether he feels like lifting something heavy that day or not (that used to matter a lot less when we were younger and picked up every cast-iron radiator and every cast-iron bathtub we came across). Jokes aside, this is really more of a question for Adam than for me, since this part of the work falls under his domain. He wants nothing to do with the builders, though he’s actually very skilled at imagining unexpected uses for the materials he salvages.
"If it were up to me, I would tend to buy materials that I am sure I can use in just about any project, such as iroko wood, but my flaw is that I tend to focus much more on the “future” of a material than on its past, while many people are (rightly) fascinated by its history and the details of its origin."
What are your secrets to building a beautiful house?
"I think what we want is to have a quiet atmosphere, which is reflected in many things (colors, acoustics), so the word “calm” was used often and willingly in the book when I found myself describing the projects we worked on.
"Perhaps it is not the first word that comes to mind when looking at the photos in the book, because we tend to associate calm with extremely minimalist interiors, but when experiencing a space, it is easier for “calm” to come from having balance.
"Ask yourself is: where do I want the eye to fall, what should be the centre of attention? To give a concrete example, people often like to spend a lot of money on flooring (who knows why? Perhaps for the same reason that some people spend a lot on a pair of shoes), but the truth is that most of the time we don't stare at the floor, and to create “the atmosphere” it is enough to find the right color... and for me personally, the noise a floor makes is even more important, or at least should be given more consideration."
The Retrouvius headquarters and store in West London © Retrouvius
How has your work changed over the years?
"That's a complex question, because so many things have changed. On the one hand, fortunately, environmental awareness has increased. On the other hand, salvaging itself (especially in the demolition of large institutions) has become much more complex: once upon a time, it was just a matter of breaking into the building at the right time, whereas now you need to have insurance, have taken a safety course, and a whole host of other things that make the operation much less financially advantageous.
"As for a change in our approach, the inner change, I would say that we have realised that the whole is more important than the individual parts, and therefore an object or material tends to work better when well matched than for its intrinsic qualities.
"There was a time when buying colored marble or onyx would have seemed like a terrible choice, suitable only for a dentist's waiting room. Instead, we have recently come to re-evaluate it, because we have seen cases where these materials were combined in interesting ways, or were so wrong that they seemed right."
'Retrouvius: Contemporary Salvage: Designing Homes from a Philosophy of Re-Use'
Words by Maria Speake, Published by Rizzoli
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