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Tom Broughton is the founder of Cubitts, but he describes himself as someone deeply intertwined with the “master builder” ethos of the 18th-century brothers the brand is named after. He lives in London’s iconic Isokon building which is a 1934 modernist landmark and that specific era of progressive, human-centric design informs much of his perspective. It is a philosophy that rejects the austere in favour of the functional, seasoned with a bit of wit.

Under Tom’s direction, Cubitts has become less about “eyewear” and more about the architecture of the face. He views the spectacles we wear and the spaces we inhabit as part of the same discipline: the art of shaping how a person experiences their day-to-day life. Whether he is opening a store in the historic cast-iron shadows of Soho, New York, or meticulously maintaining a seven-year-old lens cloth, Tom’s approach is rooted in a quiet pride for craftsmanship and a deep-seated belief that even the smallest objects deserve a sense of permanent, considered design.

$\"Cubitts\"$

1/ How does your day typically begin?
It depends on my mood. Some mornings begin with a low thrum of anxiety; others with a clean desire to get up and get going. I wake early by nature and tend to follow the same loop: shower, coffee, emails. Unless I am properly hungover.

2/ How do you prepare your preferred cup of tea or coffee?
Almost always coffee - a double espresso, taken in a long ceramic mug.

3/ Is there a daily ritual you protect at all costs?
Brushing my teeth. If I’ve forgotten a toothbrush, I will run toothpaste around my teeth like a builder applying screed. I have no idea if it helps, but it feels marginally less shameful. I also try to make the bed; not in a Jordan Peterson way, just because it is quick to do. And I have a thing about the toilet seat always being down, so I check that.

4/ What is one object you have owned for a long time and still use often?
I have used the same lens-cleaning cloth for about seven years, and I use it most days. It gets washed very occasionally. I like the size and weight of it, and the way it can be whipped out of a pocket in a flash, like the world’s worst magic trick.

5/ Describe a space in your home that you feel best reflects who you are.
Probably the kitchen; specifically the places where I hang a make-do bin liner. It is rarely elegant, often overflowing, and usually full of failed ideas.

$\"Cubitts\"$

6/ What does home mean to you?
A refuge from the chaos.

7/ What is your favourite ‘unnecessary’ pleasure at home?
Insanely hot baths; hot enough that I briefly think I might faint.

8/ How has architectural design influenced Cubitts over the years, from product design to store experience?
It is difficult to disengage architecture from Cubitts because they are so intertwined. I have always been drawn to architecture; the idea of designing how someone lives their life is endlessly interesting. How people care for and wear their spectacles is a small but important part of that. We are named after the Cubitt brothers; master builders, engineers and architects; and that influence runs through almost everything we do. Product design and store design, of course, but even more so the mentality and ethos.

9/ What are your personal sources of inspiration in architecture that have shaped Cubitts over the years; and how did you first develop those interests?
I live in the Isokon, or Lawn Road Flats; a modernist block built in 1934. That era of 1930s modernism has been hugely influential. It was progressive, of course, but what I love is how human-centric it is without being po-faced or austere. The building used to have an on-site restaurant and bar, the Isobar, with a dumbwaiter that connected it to the flats. I love that detail; the utility, and the humour.

10/ Is there a career highlight so far that you would like to share?
Opening our first store in New York, at 103 Mercer Street, in the shadow of the Judd Foundation, was a real source of pride; the culmination of many months and years of brilliant teamwork.

$\"Cubitts\"$

","tom-broughton","id","gid://shopify/Article/1004529680768","image",{"_40":48,"_49":-5,"_50":51,"_52":53,"_54":55},"publishedAt","2026-05-05T17:20:08Z","Tom Broughton",{"_13":14},"gid://shopify/ArticleImage/402656035200","altText","url","https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0992/2655/0656/articles/tomcubittsphotographerrefflesleylau02_4951e159-dc49-4a51-b942-5897502d002e.jpg?v=1787525683","width",1600,"height",1200,"name","Architectural Reveries 02",{"_56":70},"

In the hidden architecture of limestone caves, time becomes visible. Stalactites grow at less than a millimetre per year, recording centuries of climate in layers of mineral memory.

Deep beneath the surface of the Earth, in limestone caves where humidity approaches 100% and temperatures remain stable year‑round, stalactites form through the slow deposition of calcium carbonate. Rainwater absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and soil, becoming a weak carbonic acid that dissolves calcium carbonate as it percolates through limestone. When this mineral‑rich water reaches the cave ceiling and drips into open air, carbon dioxide escapes from the solution and calcite precipitates, leaving behind a microscopic ring of mineral deposit.

Over time, these deposits accumulate into stalactites. The average growth rate is 0.13 millimetres per year, though stalactites with an optimal drip rate and high calcium carbonate concentration can grow as fast as 3 millimetres per year. The drip rate must be slow enough to allow carbon dioxide to escape; if water drips too quickly, it carries dissolved minerals to the cave floor instead, forming stalagmites rather than stalactites.

$\"\"$

Nature’s Slow Geometry
Stalactites reveal a geometry shaped entirely by physics. Their taper, drip points and surface ripples result from gravity, water flow rate and the rate of carbon dioxide degassing. Growth rates depend on temperature (which affects the decay of organic matter in soil and therefore carbon dioxide levels), rainfall volume and the chemistry of the water entering the cave.

Despite being dictated purely by environmental conditions, the resulting forms echo principles of symmetry and repetition found in architectural practices. The cave becomes a built interior that has never been drawn, only formed through time.

$\"\"$

Geology as Memory
Scientists study stalactites as palaeoclimate records because the chemical composition of each calcite layer reflects the conditions under which it formed. Variations in temperature, rainfall and even volcanic activity are preserved as mineral striations, making stalactites literal archives of climate history written in stone rather than text.

This transformation of water into dense, enduring mineral happens incrementally. Each layer is a trace of process rather than intention. In design, we often seek a similar relationship between material and time. At Slowform, materials are treated as carriers of their making: porcelain that reveals the trace of casting, fabric that softens with use, pigment that shifts as it weathers. Like stalactites, these objects are shaped by repetition and patience.

$\"Slowform\"$

The Stalactite Pantone Hue
Inspired by this geological persistence, a single Pantone hue emerges: Stalactite. It is a soft, mineral beige-grey that sits between white and stone, reflecting the muted palette of limestone interiors and the way light diffuses across cave walls.
We use it as a grounding tone in our collections, one that belongs equally to natural formations, studio surfaces and domestic spaces. Stalactite becomes both a colour and a metaphor for slowness translated into form.

A Meditation on Time
Studying a stalactite means confronting timescales far beyond human rhythm. Growth that spans millennia invites a different understanding of value, one measured not by speed but by continuity. In a culture defined by immediacy, stalactites remind us that some of the most meaningful forms emerge only through patience and the marvels of nature.

$\"\"$

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Luke Moloney is a Sydney-based architect who also likes to work in the ‘country’.

In Australia, that phrase speaks to the vast rural landscapes beyond the city. The kind of open, ancient terrain you find in places like the Southern Highlands, where his acclaimed Highlands House sits as a modern sanctuary in the hills.

Luke designs with a reverence for place. He thinks hard about each site, trying to understand its particular character, then treads softly; shaping buildings that feel at ease with their surroundings. The work aims to be quiet, built to last and to gently elevate the day-to-day for the people living there — turning routine into something closer to ritual.

Back in Sydney, his studio is a small considered gathering of old friends, which he describes simply as “a lovely way to work”.

$\"Tom$

1/ How does your day typically begin?
By meeting my brother Guy for a dawn walk by the harbour, or going up into Balmain to the gym. This sounds virtuous. Sleepiness and inertia not shown.

2/ How do you prepare your preferred cup of tea or coffee?
Strong preference is for someone else to prepare! It always tastes nicer when I haven’t been involved.

3/ Is there a daily ritual you protect at all costs?
I go in very early to the studio (it’s around the corner from home) before anyone else gets in to open the blinds and let in the light with the morning air. To me it always feels optimistic - what will this day be like I wonder… Then wander downhill to the park to take the schnauzers for their walk.

4/ What is one object you have owned for a long time and still use often?
My grandmother’s egg beaters – a splendid steel contraption, riveted like an old steamship, its timber handle softened by long use. And it works. The moving parts whir and glide as though cushioned by air. It must be nearly a hundred years old, and I’ve not seen its match anywhere.

$\"Tom$

5/ Describe a space in your home that you feel best reflects who you are.
The sock drawer. Neat front. Reasonable to assume all’s in order. Internal chaos.

6/ What does home mean to you?
Sanctuary. Community. I get a strong sense of each in Balmain where I live. It’s very much a wave-to-your-neighbours-pat-the-dogs sort of a place… a village with a clear sense of itself, wrapped on three sides by the harbour, in the middle of this beautiful city.

7/ What is your favourite ‘unnecessary’ pleasure at home?
Canary yellow tapware; it makes me happy every day.

8/ What excites you about the future of architectural design, and how does it shape the homes we live in?
The sense that the bar is rising higher and higher – there are so many practitioners producing beautiful work, it’s wonderful to think what else is around the corner. I think this shapes the homes we live in through an increasingly design-literate public whose aspirations are shifting from the prosaic to the poetic, tied to heightened consciousness about sustainability and environmental responsibility through design.

9/ What has been a highlight of your career as an architect so far?
Last year I was asked by the European Cultural Commission to participate in an exhibition they were putting on for the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. I sent a few images of my projects to hang in this glorious palazzo on the Grand Canal. I hadn’t been to Venice so went along for the opening week. Intoxicating. I wish I could’ve bottled the feeling.

10/ What is your current favourite architectural project, private or public by another architect?
It’s always Jorn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House. A miracle made manifest in concrete and gleaming tile; in Sydney we’re fortunate to have it on the doorstep. A piece of architecture at once modern and ancient; of quiet serenity, yet it electrifies and activates the space around it. Every reason to go there becomes an Occasion, and just a glimpse of it improves your day.

$\"Tom$

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I. Temporal Cadence

A solitary bell chimes before dawn. Inside a hilltop monastery, figures stir in the half-light, waking to a world of vaulted arches and candle glow. A cool air carries a faint scent of the stone-walled corridors. Time begins not with alarms but with the creak of a door and the sound of footsteps echoing.

The bell marks the passing of hours. Its tone does not intrude but settles into the fabric of the day. Each strike signals not urgency but rhythm, dividing the day into measured intervals of activity and restoration.

Monastic life is a ritualised existence, harmonising moments of calm, stillness, and introspection with rituals of focus and work. Patterns emerge in repetition: rising, tending, restoring, resting. Here, routine is elevated into purpose and resilience.

$\"Morgan$

II. Spatial Economy & Internal Order

The architecture and spaces are thoughtfully conceived to balance the communal with the personal; passages for reflection seamlessly coexisting with those dedicated to daily duties, such as maintaining order and cleanliness. These spaces transcend mere physical structures, channeling monasticism’s philosophy of achieving profound intention through minimal means.

Within the garden walls, a sharp fragrance fills the air as sage, rosemary, and thyme turn toward the sun as if by duty. Bees move from hive to flower and back again, each carrying what is needed, each serving the whole.

Bread is kneaded on broad oak tables. Cheese, beer, honey, wool: each a testament to sufficiency, each act of making a gesture of care.

$\"Morgan$

III. Environmental Integration

The rhythms of the Earth carry their own intelligence. To live by them is to find harmony in the everyday. Winter repairs roofs and walls; spring plants seeds; summer brings harvest; autumn gathers and stores. A seasonal cadence keeps labour and land in balance.

Within the walls, rooms remain essential: a bed, a table, a window admitting light. It has been said that there is no architecture without light. Here, surfaces are unadorned, space formed with a balance of generosity and humility.

$\"Morgan$

IV. The Condition of Minimum

The resonance of a closing door, the worn trace of footsteps, the slow drift of light across stone. In the stillness, these gestures feel whole: nothing to add, nothing to remove. Here is a quiet eudaimonia; a flourishing not in grandeur, but in details clear, unforced, and sufficient in themselves.

To notice such things is to sense another kind of freedom; one not bound to whim, but to purpose. The monastery reveals itself less as a structure than as a way of inhabiting the world. It shows that sufficiency can be beautiful, that clarity is born of reduction, and that presence is found in ordinary gestures done with care.

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