Archinect - Features

Edinburgh's maker-architects: a visit to GRAS

2016-06-02T04:24:00-04:00

While they were both still studying architecture at the University of Strathclyde, Gunnar Groves-Raines and Stuart Falconer decided to set up a design practice at the same time: GRAS. The no-small-feat was made a bit easier by Gunnar’s father, who allowed GRAS to attach its office to Groves-Raines Architects, his own architecture practice in Edinburgh.

Slight of hand: Konishi Gaffney meld beautiful interventions with Edinburgh's history

2016-04-28T05:01:00-04:00

I’m in Leith, a short distance from Edinburgh city centre, to interview Kieran Gaffney, one-half of the Konishi Gaffney work partnership with his wife, Makiko Konishi. Konishi and Gaffney met whilst working for Thomas Heatherwick in London. Gaffney was Heatherwick’s first employee, working as an architect on early projects from 1998 until 2004.

The architects trying to restore Mackintosh's Library to its former glory

2016-04-23T11:43:00-04:00

The Charles Rennie Mackintosh building at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is an iconic structure and home of one of the greatest art schools in Europe. The building, voted the best British-designed building of the past 175 years in a nationwide poll conducted by The Sunday Times newspaper and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2009, is an iconic role model for what we perceive as the ideal art school: a space that exudes creativity through design, atmosphere and craft.

Glasgow's Collective Architecture finds success and freedom in employee ownership

2016-03-29T12:23:00-04:00

Glasgow-based Collective Architecture was founded in 2007. In what can now be heralded as a great strategic move, former owner Chris Stewart decided to transfer company ownership from himself – after a successful ten year run as Chris Stewart Architects – to an employee-owned trust. Now operating with 34 staff, all pulling together, the trust is not just that of finance but of principle and practice.

When designing for money breaks the bank architecture mold

2016-03-25T13:26:00-04:00

Think bank architecture and its associated headquarters and you may find yourself stultified by visions of doric columns, artless atriums, and bland corporate highrises. However, these six structures by prominent practitioners are a survey of the unusual and intriguing. Here’s what each financial institution says about its social/historical context, as well as the role of money at that time.