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About ROKA Studio
ROKA Studio is a design-and-make studio in Small Dole, West Sussex, ten miles from Brighton. We cast architectural concrete — worktops, islands, basins, cladding and outdoor surfaces — for homes and commercial spaces across Sussex, Surrey and London. Everything is drawn, cast, finished and installed by us.
Cast concrete, not a concrete effect
Concrete gets used two ways, and the difference matters more than most people are told.
Most of what you see is applied — a coating, an effect, a thin layer over something else. What we do is cast. The piece is formed as a solid object in a mould built for it, and what arrives is the material itself rather than an impression of it.
That distinction is the studio. It's why a run can turn a corner with no joint, why the fall on a waterfall island is the same piece as the top, and why a sink can be formed into a surface rather than dropped through it. Slab materials are cut down to fit a space. Cast concrete is built up into one.
Why we mix our own
We could buy premixed concrete. Most studios do, and it's a reasonable way to run a business.
We don't, because a polished interior surface, a terrace facing years of freeze–thaw and a terrazzo carrying heavy aggregate all want different things from a mix. One bag for all three means two of them are compromises. Formulating in-house means the material is specified for the piece rather than the piece designed around the material.
The same logic runs through the rest of it. Drawing, mould-making, casting, finishing, metalwork and installation happen here, and substructures and brackets are made rather than ordered in. Nothing goes to a subcontractor, so nothing gets lost between the drawing and the room.
How we work
We'd rather be right than agreeable
If a layout won't work, if a span needs support you don't want, or if concrete is the wrong material for what you're describing, we'll say so before anything is cast. It's cheaper for everyone than being polite about it.
A cracked worktop is a failure, not character
Much of this trade will tell you hairline cracking is inherent to concrete and part of its charm. Unless it's a rustic finish you chose, it's a fault in the mix, the reinforcement or the design — and where a piece we made cracks, we recast it. How we handle cracking.
You'll know what you're getting
Drawings before moulds. Real cast samples in the actual colour and finish before you commit. A clear answer on cost and lead time rather than a number that moves once you're invested.
Aaron, founder
ROKA Studio was founded by Aaron, who leads design and production.
The studio's approach comes from a background in making rather than specifying — hands on the material, across concrete chemistry, mould design, machining and metalwork. Before concrete there were ten years cooking professionally, a lot of it outdoors on wood-fired and BBQ setups. Knowing how a space gets used under pressure changes what you build into it.
The through-line is detail. The gap between a good cast piece and an ordinary one is almost never dramatic. It's tolerances, mix control, surface preparation, and a hundred small decisions made properly rather than quickly.
Aaron leads every project from first drawing to final fit. If you commission something from ROKA Studio, he is the person you'll be dealing with.
Can we be trusted with it?
Fair question, and one you should ask of anyone taking a deposit.
We work for named clients in real towns — Steyning, Henfield, Worthing — and we'll put you in touch with them if you want to hear it first-hand rather than read a quote on a website.
You'll have CAD drawings and a full material specification before anything is made, and cast samples in your actual colour and finish before you commit. Nothing gets made until you've signed off what it's going to be.
And if a piece we make fails, we recast it. That's the whole policy.
Samples, brought to you
We cast sample tablets in our stock colours and finishes, and we'll post them anywhere in the UK. For projects nearby, we'd rather bring them to you and see the space while we're there — a colour behaves differently in the room it's going into, under that room's light, than it ever does in a photograph.