Description
Wright & Wright are proud to have been chosen by the Architectural Association, the Church of England, the RIBA, Museum of the Home, Royal College of Art and numerous Oxbridge colleges to design buildings for them. The practice was formed in 1994 by Sandy and Clare Wright, and has grown steadily since then. Stephen Smith joined the practice in 2005 and became a partner in 2011. More recently, Naila Yousuf was also made a partner in 2020 after five years at the practice. We limit our portfolio to ensure that partners are involved in every project – they discuss each design in detail, and often work together on them.
We are committed to producing high-quality buildings. This requires skill and persistence at each stage of the project. It begins with an understanding of our clients’ aspirations and continues via supporting them throughout the life of a project and beyond. We hope the fact that clients repeatedly commission us is evidence of our good work.
Although we work across a range of sectors, we have developed a strong portfolio in higher education and cultural buildings – in particular, our expertise lies in the design of archives, libraries and galleries.
Our architecture does not follow the vagaries of fashion. Instead, we try to design beautiful, well-functioning, durable, low-energy buildings, using traditional materials in innovative ways, which we hope will look good and work well in 50 or 100 years’ time.
The guiding thread running through our work is the skill we bring to resolving the issues encountered on sensitive sites and projects, such as the new Library and Archive for the Church of England in the gardens of Lambeth Palace, and the challenging remodelling of the Museum of the Home, which delivered 80% more usable space within the shell of a historic almshouse.
We are adept at designing low or zero carbon buildings, which optimise passive and renewable sources of energy to reduce consumption and ongoing maintenance costs. Such an approach will be critical in meeting the present and future challenges of climate change. Our project for remodelling the library at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, has exceptional sustainability credentials, including conforming to onerous Passivhaus standards, the first educational building within the Oxford University estate to do so.
We are fortunate in having a dedicated team with special expertise in construction. We are highly experienced at negotiating complex applications through the planning system and enjoy researching new construction techniques as well as ensuring that rigorous standards are met on site.
Research and development support our work, such as developing proposals for disabled access for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and energy efficiency for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we have helped clients adapt to new ways of occupying buildings, for example, in our work on visitor circulation for the British Museum.
We believe architecture is a social art and should reflect the racial, gender and socio-economic diversity of the society it serves. We support increased inclusivity in our practice through our partnership with the London School of Architecture, and offer bursaries to outstanding Part 1 year out students when they return to college. Our practice is structured on profit share lines and we do not employ unpaid interns. A building is the work of many hands, and each individual in our talented, diverse team, brings a unique perspective to the design and realisation of every project.
