A novel and facile method for the fabrication of hollow spherical silica is presented. Mixing poly(L-lysine) together with lipophilic amine additives in water results in the formation of large aggregates, which can be transcribed into their spherical silica analogues by the addition of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS). By varying the additives it has been established that the amino moieties of the additive, rather than those of the poly(L-lysine), play a crucial role in the transcription process.