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INSIGHTS
PRACTICE PROFILE WGP Architects
Kim Neville explores WGP’s 20-year journey, including how it trademarked a model for human-centred, sustainable design, while pursuing AI and a collaborative culture to drive impactful architecture.
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GP is a relatively young practice, founded just 20 years ago. As with many emerging fi rms, the early years presented challenges – maintaining fi nancial stability while growing the client base and balancing expansion with a commitment to design quality.
Origins & setup From the outset, the practice aimed to become a commercial studio capable of delivering architecture at scale while contributing to innovation in design. At the heart of the fi rm is a philosophy rooted in wellness, a principle that continues to shape its work today. As the team puts it: “We believe architects should contribute to and improve people’s experience and lives.”
Sustainability has since become a central driving force for the company. Even before this sharpened focus, there was a strong interest in material effi ciency, and what the practice describes as ‘appropriate forms’ of construction – embedding effi ciency into schemes from the outset. They compare the ethos to “how a product designer would approach design for manufacture, but built in from the beginning.” Alongside this technical approach, as it grew, the fi rm explored how effi ciency could inform spatial experience, articulation and architectural complexity.
These early steps enabled the practice to evolve naturally, supported by a pragmatic sustainability focus; one that responds proactively to the climate crisis. The company explains the approach: “Our Effi cient Architecture™ manifesto – more with less – has evolved into a holistic approach to sustainability: identifying opportunities and solving them with as few moves as possible.” A clear defi nition of responsibilities across the senior leadership team is core to the practice’s modus operandi. Strategic vision, operational stability, problem-solving leadership and specialist interior expertise are seen as complementary drivers that allow the fi rm to grow, while remaining aligned with its core values. The fi rm’s origins lie in hospitality and high-end residential projects, with leisure also entering the portfolio early on due to personal interests in fi tness. Over time, it developed a strong reputation across the full spectrum of residential work, from student accommodation and Build-to-Rent schemes to later living and care sectors, as well as emerging models such as co-living. While WGP may have pivoted from their early hospitality focus, the learnings from those foundations remain evident. The
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experiential qualities and interior architectural thinking developed in that sector continue to inform its residential and wellness projects, an approach the team believes “translates particularly well.”
Culture & ethos Internally, WGP operates a hybrid working model but continues to value face-to-face collaboration, particularly in relation to training and professional development. The company’s leadership style has evolved through ongoing learning and self-refl ection. As the leadership notes, “We have a diverse company across every metric, and we feel that contributes to a culture built around collaboration and shared values.” The fi rm recognises that as it expands, adapting processes to best support teams while maintaining effi ciency is crucial. WGP defi nes and measures the value of design as a combination of sustainability, inclusivity, functionality, and social impact. Each element carries merit on its own, contributing both quantitatively and qualitatively to design value. However, the fi rm observes that the most meaningful outcome emerges when these factors intersect: “The result we fi nd most telling, the one that seems to emerge from all of them together, is the contentment and satisfaction of the team.” Effi cient Architecture™ represents WGP’s 20-year journey distilled into a teachable, scalable design framework. Their path has been fairly linear, beginning with a focus on construction, fabrication, offsite manufacturing, and material effi ciency. Over time, they have come to understand that these are not ends in themselves, but tools to enhance human experience, embrace complexity and support fi nancial sustainability. They continue to build on this foundation adding layers to address the full spectrum of sustainability but always through effi cient, thoughtful approaches.
Design process WGP does not follow a fi xed signature design approach; instead, the fi rm focuses on problem-solving rather than trends or fashions. That said, they admit there is an element of recognisability in a WGP building, even if that was never the fi rm’s explicit intention. Sustainability runs throughout, using targets that are both “measurable and meaningful.” They are harnessing computational and AI methods to “quickly checking KPIs as we design, and adjust in response to the data. 2026 will hopefully be the year that this process is fully embedded.”
ADF MARCH 2026
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