Profile

Various W&W team members:

Wright & Wright stands for integrity;
Good architecture;
Good quality architecture;
Highly crafted buildings;
We’re known for our sensitivity;
Durability;
Giving the right answer;
A certain calibre;
Good detailing;
Collaborative design;
There's a quiet radicalness to Wright & Wright;
We're not stylists;
We are not ones for fads;
We’re honest designers;

Clare Wright:

We decided to come together to form the practice in 1994.

Elliot Nash:

It was about Sandy and Clare coming together after working at really great practices.

Clare Wright:

We'd always shared these architectural values.

Sandy Wright:

No shortcuts, no gimmicks.

Naila Yousuf:

There's from, kind of, diagram to detail. And that epitomises the philosophy of the practice where every single thing is thought about.

Clare Wright:

Now we have two other partners, Stephen and Naila, and many other people in the office who are really talented. We were just given incredible opportunities in architecture and work with some amazing clients.

Stephen Smith:

Over three decades of designing and working in architecture, the practice has covered lots of different sectors.

Various W&W staff:

From the culture sector;
in the education sector;
Buildings like museums, galleries and archives.

Eva Hrončeková:

It's not just about the buildings, but it's also about the objects and the collections and thinking about people who come to these spaces to experience them.

Josh Blandford:

We want to facilitate people coming to the site and being connected to the objects, but also ensure that those objects can be protected.

Clare Wright:

The criteria has always been that we will work for a client who cares.

Naila Yousuf:

We take things on that we really believe in because we believe in the brief and what the client's trying to do

Sandy Wright:

Particularly with Grade I historic buildings. They trust us because they see we care.

Naila Yousuf:

And that there's that kind of shared vision for what we can achieve.

Stephen Smith:

New into old is one of the tenets that underpins the practice, we love taking an old building, understand what makes it tick, taking it apart, putting it back together in a different way, bringing new elements into counterpoint with the old.

Clare Wright:

What that does is to create a contrast so that often the old is then seen again, in a new light.

Ronan Morris:

There's a real skill within the practice to insert delicate, contextual architecture in a confident manner.

Stephen Smith:

That doesn't come easily,that comes through lots of research really carefully understanding the history of the building.

Elliot Nash:

Bringing whether it's a material, whether it's the kind of social aspect of a project, we are bringing something new into an old site.

Naila Yousuf:

The office has been leaders in the field of sustainability for the past three decades.

Stephen Smith:

Our architecture demands a sustainable solution and our clients demand it, and new audiences demand a very low energy building.

Josh Blandford:

I think what's unique about our approach is, yes, we look to technology in terms of what it can do for us, but we also learn from the stories of the past.

Leanna Boxill:

We're looking for design and detailing that will last a generation, two generations, three generations.

Linus Third:

Sustainable can also be your wellbeing. Using natural materials. Using natural ventilation, and I think also then having a connection to nature, biophilia within the building as well.

Naila Yousuf:

We really are trying to push the boundaries on Passivhaus, ecology and really amping up the biodiversity net gain, on even the most urban sites.

Ronan Morris:

We're working with large, talented teams throughout the industry on delivering projects that really have sustainability at their core. That's something that we see is really important and integrating right into the heart of our designs.

Sandy Wright:

Harmonising the materials I think is really very important.

Stephen Smith:

It's about thinking creatively about why are materials being chosen.

Eva Hrončeková:

It's not pretending to be something that it's not. If it's stone, it's always stone, if it's timber is always solid timber.

Sandy Wright:

No plastics, please.

Stephen Smith:

We like designing spaces that are welcoming, that people feel they can cross the threshold and find out more.

Elliot Nash:

Accessibility for us is designing for everyone and always thinking about different people that might be visiting our buildings.

Naila Yousuf:

There's also the intellectual access component of it, and making places like museums and galleries feel much more appealing to people that may not already go to those spaces.

Clare Wright:

I think everybody here is immensely talented.

Eva Hrončeková:

Everyone has a different background, different experience, different training.

Stephen Smith:

Teamwork is really important to us. Everyone can bring an idea,

Malcolm Ebose:

It doesn't ever feel like what you say is unimportant.

Ronan Morris:

But there's a kind of sense of shared endeavour and a real camaraderie as you work through the process.

Colleen Ritzau Leth:

And it works well for our clients because we bring a diverse set of perspectives to everything that we do.

Elliot Nash:

Whether it's dealing with lighting, whether it's dealing with furniture, whether it's dealing with materials, whether it's dealing with sterile environments.

Naila Yousuf:

The team dynamic, which is a sort of genuine bond, comes across
when we meet with clients. I think that helps clients trust us.

Leanna Boxill:

We do a lot of workshopping with clients, we’re always in dialogue. We're always having to
keep that conversation going.

Elliot Nash:

I think the future of Wright& Wright is to keep doing what we're doing.

Stephen Smith:

We’re at this really, really exciting time in architecture where we're dealing with these huge issues of climate change, how we use energy, how we develop social infrastructure. I think we have to really bring our creative skills into that conversation.

Malcolm Ebose:

I want to see change in the world, and I think buildings and architecture really has the ability to do that.

Colleen Ritzau Leth:

And my hope for the practice in the next ten or twenty years is that we contribute more to the shared conversation, that we be a thought leader in this space.

Ronan Morris:

That makes me and I think the practice kind of very excited about the work ahead.

Stephen Smith:

I think architecture, if it's done well, is uplifting.

Clare Wright:

We live in villages and towns and cities and if those places are beautiful, they affect our wellbeing.

Malcolm Ebose:

Buildings impact us in many ways and all the time, every day.