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.
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.
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.
We approach projects with few preconceived notions of what it “must” be – the way it must look, the way it must be built.
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.
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.
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.
For all enquiries, please contact info@wgp-architects.com.
Opportunity, Process & Wellness
200pp, Printed on Munken Rough
Designed by Studio Lowrie