WGP is a place where great commitment is given in pursuit of function, aesthetic, coherence and joy – it is a studio where innovative solutions and well considered detailed execution is paramount. We find the creation of space is an enriching and innovative act – we have devoted our careers to it, and we endeavour to inspire the same excitement for this process in our clients.

Team

Directors Phil Waind, James Potter and Sonya Gohil set the tone with their passion for appropriate, contemporary architecture, with the individual strengths of each director complimenting the other: Phil spearheads strategy with James focusing on execution, whilst Sonya oversees practice management. Their combined experience, gained over 75 years of running large scale projects in commercial practice, is blended with an expanding team of highly motivated and talented architectural staff.

Practice

Our projects have taught us is that the best results come out of genuine collaboration, and creative and lateral thinking. We set aside egos, we set aside assumptions, and we listen. We immerse ourselves in a brief, interrogate it, and find ways to bring newness to projects that may seem run of the mill. These solutions are always elegant – they feel natural, simple and resolved. It isn’t novelty, it is progress – not “because we can”, but architecture that offers quality of life. WGP has a history of this type of work. These themes are a part of our DNA, a part of every project big and small, and what we hope will carry us forward.

Harry Mellor
Architectural Assistant
Alice Marwood
Architectural Assistant
Faye Ayroso
Architectural Assistant
Sonya Gohil
Director
Peter Wildor
Senior Architect
Phil Waind
Director
Niall Green
Senior Architect
Rhiain Bower
Architect
Carys Payne
Architect
Peter Garfath
Architectural Assistant
Anupama Rao
Architectural Assistant
Malgorzata Socha
Architectural Assistant
Andrea Ward
Office Manager
James Potter
Director
Gabrielle Bucknall
Architect
Alessandro Baciocchi
Architect
Tom Yudin
Architectural Assistant
Claire Innes
Architectural Assistant
Axelle Sibierski
Architectural Assistant
Harry Mellor
Architectural Assistant
Alice Marwood
Architectural Assistant
Faye Ayroso
Architectural Assistant
Sonya Gohil
Director
Peter Wildor
Senior Architect
Phil Waind
Director
Niall Green
Senior Architect
Rhiain Bower
Architect
Carys Payne
Architect
Peter Garfath
Architectural Assistant
Anupama Rao
Architectural Assistant
Malgorzata Socha
Architectural Assistant
Andrea Ward
Office Manager
James Potter
Director
Gabrielle Bucknall
Architect
Alessandro Baciocchi
Architect
Tom Yudin
Architectural Assistant
Claire Innes
Architectural Assistant
Axelle Sibierski
Architectural Assistant

Accolades & Awards

2023 Shortlisted BD Architect of the Year
Social Value
Shortlisted BD Architect of the Year
Higher Education
Finalist Pinders Healthcare Design Awards- Best Exterior Design category
Burgess Park
2022 IStructE South Eastern Structural Awards Small Project Winner
Folly - Kent
Shortlisted AJ Architecture Awards - Cultural Category
Theatre Square / NW2
Longlisted MacEwan Award for Community Support
Theatre Square / NW2
Winner RIBA East - Client of the Year Award
Theatre Square / NW2
Winner RIBA East Award
Theatre Square / NW2
Regional Finalist Civic Trust Awards
Theatre Square / NW2
2021 Shortlisted Student Accommodation Awards - Best Hall of Residence: Baldwin Street
Baldwin Street
Winner Planning Awards - Best use of arts, culture or sport in placemaking
Theatre Square / NW2
Commended Ipswich Society Awards
Theatre Square / NW2
2019 Shortlisted FX Awards
Core Collective / Knightsbridge
Finalist Student Accommodation Awards
Why 13.5: Room Concept
2018 Finalist Retrofit Awards
The Old Barn
Finalist Inside Housing Development Awards
Lingfield
Finalist AJ Specification Awards
Garden House Staircase
2017 Shortlisted WIN Awards
Core Collective / High Street Kensington
Finalist Structural Timber Awards
Farlows Lake
NLA Awards
Homes, Wiseton Road
Winner Epic Retreat’s ‘Legendary Glamping’ competition
SkyHut
Shortlisted BD Architect of the Year
Sport & Leisure
Shortlisted British Homes Awards
The Old Barn
2016 Shortlisted FX award, Leisure & Entertainment
Core Collective / High Street Kensington
Shortlisted International Design and Architecture Awards
Casa Botelho
Winner International Property Award, Residential renovation & redevelopment
Halliford Street
Shortlisted NLA award, Wellbeing
Core Collective / High Street Kensington
2013 Surrey Architecture Exhibition, June
Various projects
Shortlisted Don’t Move, Improve! Award
Ardilaun Road
2012 Shortlisted Don’t Move, Improve! Award
Airedale
Shortlisted Don’t Move, Improve! Award
The Shop Studios
2011 Shortlisted Ullswater Yacht Clubhouse competition
Ullswater Clubhouse
2010 Shortlisted AJ Small Project of the Year
Elm Road
2008 Featured Tribeca Competition
Infobox

Approach

We approach projects with few preconceived notions of what it “must” be – the way it must look, the way it must be built.

Opportunity

The simplest solutions aren’t always the most obvious; and so great opportunities can be easily overlooked. We allow our experience to guide us, but equally we try not to cloud our minds with too many ready-made responses and package solutions. This openness is a key principle of our approach to architecture, where problems and constraints are a catalyst for discovery and innovation.

To find opportunity, we interrogate briefs, and we also look critically at the world around us. The way we choose to live and work, or workout for that matter, are in flux. How are the needs of a prospective user changing, and can we get ahead of that without sacrificing its value today?

An energetic hunt for opportunities has made the delivery of our projects quicker, economical, more engaging, and more beautiful.

Process

Good architects go deeper than looks; they are problem solvers. They know how to interrogate and manipulate dimensions and volumes, materials and details to achieve elegant and simple solutions – turning limitations and parameters into opportunity.

As a practice, we believe that to achieve this – to be a practice that solves – requires a reverence for process.

At an early stage, we pair design with a consideration of making.

This is a question fundamental to good architecture, and one equally potent in other areas of the creative industries, such as industrial design. We seek to re-engage with it. Early on, we involve specialists, and in many cases dive deep into details of fabrication, and allow that to inspire details – rather than fighting against processes, we elevate them.

Wellness

We are becoming more aware of, and concerned about, our own wellness. It has led us to a better literacy of architecture: we think critically about how and why a space affects us. As a result, our expectations of a home, a workplace, a gym, a hotel, a gallery have converged: they cannot simply be functional, they must also satisfy us emotionally.

Whether a place is animated or serene, good wellbeing is always a consideration of pace and of joy.

Enquiries

For all enquiries, please contact info@wgp-architects.com.

WGP Architects

Opportunity, Process & Wellness
200pp, Printed on Munken Rough
Designed by Studio Lowrie

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