About Us — Cave Co-operative

The Cave Co-operative specialises in Sustainability, natural building materials & energy efficiency.

Founded by Liz Crisp and Vera Hale in 2008, The Cave Co-operative works within a social business model. We focus on energy efficiency, sustainable construction techniques, and natural building materials such as straw, earth, timber, and stone.

Combining listening skills with design expertise to create beautiful buildings that have minimal impact on the planet.

Whether we’re working with individuals, companies, or entire communities we combine listening skills with design expertise to create beautiful buildings that have minimal impact on the planet.

At Cave, we have extensive experience of community engagement during public and commercial projects. We also work with community groups, housing associations, and community land trusts.

Meet the Team

Liz Crisp

Architect, Director and Co-founder

Liz studied at Kingston and North London Universities, completing her architectural studies with a consistent focus on sustainable design. Liz has worked for Walter and MacNamara Architects in central London, working on a wide variety of private and commercial projects from initial design stage to completion. After W&M Liz became self employed and over the following 9 years she focused on working with Derek Plummer Chartered Architects on a wide variety of private residential, conservation and medium sized local development schemes.

Natural materials

During this time Liz regularly worked on conservation projects and listed buildings, whilst further developing her passion for sustainable design; deepening her knowledge of low-tech construction methods such as Strawbale, Cob, Car tyre, Lime & Clay renders and plasters and the re-use of ‘waste’ material. Liz studied as an ambassador for the internationally renowned Strawbale building company “Amazonails”, now Strawworks, alongside Barbara Jones and Bee Rowan. Liz has been a guest critic at the University of Essex.

Vera Hale

Architect and Co-founder

Vera studied at the University of North London and the Technical University of Delft. She graduated from the TU Delft with honourable mention for her graduation project on the re-territorialization of disputed lands in Kosovo after the war by community interaction.

Community engagement expert

Vera has 10 years of work experience on a diverse range of projects both here in the UK and in The Netherlands, and has gained experience at all stages of design and construction on several social and sustainable schemes. As project architect at 24h>architecture she worked on a sustainable urban-masterplan in Besancon, France in association with Aterlier Seraji. And at S333 she was project architect for the RIBA award winning Tarling Housing Development. Vera has taught at the Technical University of Delft and has been a guest critic at the University of Essex.

Paul Harvey

1983 - 2023

Architect and Director

Paul Harvey began his architectural education in Edinburgh studying sustainable design. He then did a spell in the industry until he decided to deepen his interest in sustainable and community led architecture by studying at London Metropolitan University. After working in central London for a while, we were lucky that Paul chose to join the Cave family!

Paul had an extraordinarily set of skills and a wealth of knowledge and experience. He was an immensely creative, kind, and caring person with a uniquely funny sense of humour. Paul was passionate about timber craftsmanship and studied round wood construction. He was an accomplished musician and a pioneer of fine vegan concertina making! We loved him dearly and he is and will always be deeply missed.

Rosaly Kortz

Senior Project Architect, Access Consultant and Natural Builder

Rosaly studied at the Technical University of Berlin. Her year long work experience in Glasgow resulted in her diploma vision of turning the derelict Govan Graving Docks into an Aquatics Centre for the Commonwealth Games in 2014. She received first class honours for her project. As senior Architect, Rosaly has gained fundamental work experience over the past 13 years. Throughout her career she worked on a variety of healthcare, education, housing & retail projects in the UK and Germany.

Sustainability, Accessibility & Retrofit

Alongside her work, Rosaly studied accessible consultancy with the chamber of architects in Berlin and found her passion of building with natural materials, which has led her to a life in the UK. Recently, Rosaly successfully completed the Level 2 Award in Understanding Domestic Retrofit at The Retrofit Academy. Rosaly is one of the first graduates of the School of Natural Building which was founded by Barbara Jones and Eileen Sutherland. Here, she gained her clay & lime plastering skills, learned how to build houses with straw & timber and enjoyed all aspects of building in a community setting. While Rosaly has been a guest critic at UEL London, on occasion, you might find her lime washing a lighthouse in Norway.

Ruhaida Mohd Shah

Architectural assistant

Ruhaida has completed both of her part 1 and part 2 architectural studies at University of Portsmouth. Before joining Cave, she has previously worked in several London architectural practices and has experience working in variety of residential, commercial and masterplanning projects across London and the Home Counties.

Placemaking and architectural identity

Originally from Malaysia, she has lived, studied and worked in the UK for over 10 years. Following her Asian background and extensive travelling throughout Europe, she has developed a strong interest in vernacular architecture and how regional landscape, climate and culture have influenced architectural identity and environmental sustainability. She has adopted sensitive and sensible design approaches in placemaking with deep consideration of context, heritage and building sustainability.

In her free time, she enjoys baking and spending time with her young family.

Working As A Team

Cave is a co-op because of our passion for equality and respect. We love working as a team and believe that when people feel heard and respected they take ownership and pride in what they do.

We enjoy involving our clients as much as possible throughout a project. We believe that the best ideas come from an interactive client process. This is not only fun and rewarding for all, but delivers a scheme where the client has complete ownership and understanding of the design and decision process.

Cave is able to provide you with a professional, friendly, bespoke service that includes a wealth of practical experience and knowledge of sustainable building techniques . The Cave co-operative is experienced in consultancy, full project design, and contract administration. We have a wide range of experience in retro-fitting existing buildings, residential new builds and public/commercial builds. These include: eco friendly conversions, sustainable housing developments, and commercial offices. We also love working on conservation area design, strawbale, cob buildings, and city farms.

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