Corstorphine & Wright Practice Overview

Practice Overview

DATE:

October 2025 corstorphine-wright.com

Practice Overview

About Us Corstorphine & Wright is an award-winning architectural practice with design studios nationwide. We have a unique reputation – we’re known both for creative excellence and commercial edge.

We design spaces with that elusive ‘musthave’ quality, translating requirements, constraints and opportunities into places that are more than the sum of their parts.

Using our insight-led approach and drawing on experience from our 300+ strong team, we help invigorate communities, excite stakeholders and maximise long-term value.

For further insight into our practice, please visit our website at www.corstorphine-wright.com

City Living Smallbrook Queensway, Birmingham

Practice Overview

Sector Experience

When clients talk about our creativity and commerciality, they always mention our crosssector experience.

We’re known for our sector depth and breadth. Knowledge sharing is built into our process, so you get a unique perspective that incorporates innovation from other industries.

You see this in the way our student living schemes foster communities. You see it in the way our hotel, retail, residential and office expertise promotes placemaking in mixed-use projects. You see it in the ways our bluelight and defence specialists design schemes that boost operational efficiency. And the list goes on.

Our studios span the UK, and we have a deep understanding of how developments and planning work nationwide. We drive projects forward thanks to 40 years’ experience working with a range of partners, stakeholders and supply chains.

Whether it’s a hotel in Scotland, a mixed-use scheme in the Midlands or a military barracks on England’s south coast, you benefit from a culture of collaboration that delivers better results.

Residential Offices

Urban Design Practice Overview

Student Living

Bluelight / Defence

City Living

Mixed Use / Leisure

Hotels

Market insight and knowledge sharing are built into our approach. This creates more opportunities to invigorate communities, excite stakeholders and maximise long-term value.

Life Sciences & Industrial

Retail

Health

Masterplanning

Education

Regeneration

What our Clients say

Practice Overview

Exchange Plaza, Ealing

Mixed Use We are delighted that Oxford City Council has approved our proposals to rejuvenate the heart of Cowley town centre. We have been working alongside the council and the local residents over 2 years, and as a longterm investor in the town, we look forward to introducing new restaurants, homes, a hotel, jobs to the area and revitalising the tired entrances and public realm.

Jamie Whitfield, Mixed Use Project Client

City Living We knew ahead of the launch that there was very strong interest, but to reserve the first release within days of the event is testament to what we are aiming to achieve.

Neil Edginton, City Living Project Client

Windsor Square, Royal Arsenal

Practice Overview

The Oaks Phases 2 & 3, Coventry

Student Living Corstorphine & Wright have been an instrumental part of the development of the Fusion Students brand. We have always found them to be inventive and creative, and they have provided a consistently high architectural and interior design service on all of our projects with them.

Warren Rosenberg, Student Living Project Client

Offices The key message that comes from the masterplan is that not only have we listened to the market, but more importantly to our occupiers. They were involved from the early stages in telling us what they wanted to see in the building, which has driven this process.

Andrew Willoughby, Office Project Client

Practice Overview

The Council House, Derby

Leisure Leake Street Arches, London

Practice Overview

Offices Royal Liver Building, Liverpool

Staffordshire University Student Village Hub

Practice Overview

Education Corstorphine & Wright clearly understand how buildings support schools in improving outcomes. Their knowledge of teaching strategies, safeguarding and pastoral care is evident in the way they approach design. They helped us get more out of our budget and delivered within our timescales.

Education Project Client

Oakley All Through School, Warwickshire

Student Living St Marks, Lincoln

Practice Overview

Dorset Police HQ, Dorset

Bluelight I wanted to say a huge “thank you” to you, without whom Dorset Police wouldn’t have the most amazing building and I wouldn’t have had the best project of my entire career.

Bluelight Project Client

Practice Overview

Hotels Corstorphine & Wright’s practical yet creative approach has been instrumental in smoothing the planning pathway for a scheme that delivers value to all stakeholders.

Hotels Project Client

The Echo Building, Liverpool

Offices The Scoop, Union Street, London

Practice Overview

Transport Skelton Lake, Leeds

Practice Overview

The Cotgrave Hub, Nottingham

Health The new facility has been lauded by staff and patients alike. The new Medical Centre demonstrates what can be achieved with the right knowledge, tenacity and passion..

Health Project Client

Offices Unusual Rigging HQ, Bugbrooke, Northamptonshire

Practice Overview

National winner of both the ‘Best Corporate Workplace’ and ‘Best of the Best’ titles at the British Council for Offices (BCO) Awards.

Design Ethos Our Design Ethos

Great places stem from a clear local identity, filling a deep-rooted human desire for belonging. They foster a human connection, adding commercial, civic and social value.

How do you achieve a great place?

Great placemaking comes from a Big Idea. That idea provides the framework for design decision-making at every scale. It creates a sense of intellectual rigour, consistency and completeness in the finished product.

Distil & Amplify a Sense of Place The sense of place stems from an analysis of the site’s current and historical context. That way, downstream design solutions flow seamlessly as the natural next chapter.

Generate a Convincing Narrative The narrative is a rigorous, insight-based response to the context, opportunities and constraints. This ensures designs have form and meaning, fostering local identity and community connections.

Prioritise People, Place & Purpose Well-designed places are built for people. This means spaces and buildings are legible, respond to their purpose and add meaning to the activities they contain. It also means there’s a positive relationship between buildings and the public realm always acknowledging a human scale and proportion.

Keep it Simple, Efficient & Sustainable Elegant buildings and pure forms are more memorable.

Well-designed and proportioned repetition – combined with a limited material palette – delivers visual consistency and robust, sustainable building envelopes.

All Scales are Informed by the Big Idea The Big Idea is the filter for all decision-making. This leads to the unified, harmonious quality we recognise in all good design – and helps us unlock commercial, civic and social value.

Practice Overview

People -focused Big Ideas

Maximising planning consents

Optimising appraisals Value for communities and clients

De-risking construction

Why Corstorphine & Wright

With Corstorphine & Wright, you get better places and spaces – which means more value for clients and communities.

Using our straightforward methodology and drawing on cross-sector experience, we deliver a design-driven service with a commercial edge.

Collaboration

Inclusivity

Enjoyment

Our Values

Integrity

Practice Overview

Innovation

In Numbers

13

300+

studios throughout the UK

strong team of experienced professionals who share learnings from across the practice

40

135

years of industry experience

leading UK property PLCs and developers have worked with us

85% of projects have been for repeat clients over the past 3 years

The Beginning 1978

Reborn Jeff Downes, Paul Turner, Micheal Lampard & Stephen Barnett re-established the Warwick and London studios

Corstorphine & Wright was established by John Corstorphine and Tom Wright

2010

2012

Manchester Launch Ross Erwin joins to open Manchester Studio

Stourbridge Studio BBLB join to open our Stourbridge studio

2014

2015

Scotland Launch Corstorphine & Wright joined forces with SasanBell in Glasgow

72

45

116 Entered the AJ rankings at 116

Climbed to 72

Simon Crosby re-joins the practice to form specialist Bluelight Team

Birmingham & Canterbury studios opened

2015

2016

Bluelight Team

Birmingham & Canterbury

2017

Leeds Studio CAL Architects join to establish our Leeds studio

56 Up 16 places to 56

2018

Cracking the top 50 placing 45

Darlington Studio Niven Architects come on board to establish our north east studio

24

2019

2020

An incredible milestone, entering the top 25 - placing 24

Tamworth Studio

2021

41 We climb to 41

Leeds Expansion & aLL Design Corstorphine & Wright welcome Architecture 519, further consolidating Leeds presence

MattBrook Architects

WHP Architects join to establish our Tamworth studio and specialist Health Team

22

2022 We climb to 22

14

2023

We enter the top 20 for the first time and climb to 14

13

2024

We climb higher into the top 20 and reach 13

10 We climb higher into the top 10 and reach 10

2025

London Studio Lipton Plant Architects join to enhance our London presence

Fordingbridge & Bristol South Coast-based practice BrightSPACE join Corstorphine & Wright to further expand our Central South Region presence alongside our recently opened Bristol studio

Our Studios

BIRMINGHAM

GLASGOW

STOURBRIDGE

Floor 20, Alpha Building, Suffolk Street Queensway, Birmingham, B1 1TT

145 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, G2 5JF

The Old Library, Hagley Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands DY8 1QH

0121 737 8350

0141 2222 676

helloglasgow@cw-architects.co.uk

hellobirmingham@cw-architects.co.uk

01384 909 850

hellostourbridge@cw-architects.co.uk

BRISTOL

LEEDS

TAMWORTH

Clockwise Bristol, Generator Building, Finzels Reach, Counterslip, Bristol, BS1 6BX

The Studio, Candle House, 1 Wharf Approach, Leeds, LS1 4GH

5 Aldergate, Tamworth, B79 7DJ

020 7842 0820

0113 213 5656

CANTERBURY

LONDON

WARWICK

Canterbury Innovation Centre, University Road, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7FG

21-27 Lamb’s Conduit Street, Holborn, London WC1N 3NL

Brook Hall, Brook Street, Warwick , CV34 4BL

020 7842 0820

01926 658 444

hellobristol@cw-architects.co.uk

01227 786231

hellolondon@cw-architects.co.uk

DARLINGTON

MANCHESTER

Suite 1 Ground Floor, Coniscliffe House, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington, DL3 7EE

4th Floor, Tribeca House, 21-27 Dale Street, Manchester, M1 1EY

01325 260055

0161 272 8100

FORDINGBRIDGE

NEWCASTLE

27 Glasshouse Studios, Fryern Court Road, Fordingbridge, SP6 1QX

Suite 8, 60 Grey Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 6AH

01425 655 806

hellofordingbridge@cw-architects.co.uk

Practice Overview

hellotamworth@cw-architects.co.uk

helloleeds@cw-architects.co.uk

hellocanterbury@cw-architects.co.uk

hellodarlington@cw-architects.co.uk

01827 67123

hellomanchester@cw-architects.co.uk

0191 816 3437

hellonewcastle@cw-architects.co.uk

hellowarwick@cw-architects.co.uk