Together we can...
Together we can...
GSSArchitecture is a national, award-winning architectural practice with a dynamic and forward-thinking approach. Operating across the whole of the UK with offices located in Kettering, Leeds, London, Newcastle, Harrogate, Milton Keynes, we specialise in projects where a collaborative approach is required.
We design tailored architectural solutions, and place sustainability and inclusivity at the heart of our design ethos. Our project experience includes a diverse range of public and private sectors covering the entire process from inception through to completion, all of which are supported by in-house specialist divisions, including Graphics and Conservation and Heritage.
Together, we can bring your vision to life.
arts and culture
Our Arts & Culture projects centre on creating dynamic, multifunctional spaces and building strong partnerships with organisations that inspire creativity through performances, exhibitions, courses, and workshops, both on site and across the wider community.
Our extensive experience in this sector encompasses a diverse range of projects, from the delivery of new art galleries and performing arts centres to specialised exhibition spaces and the refurbishment and remodelling of historic libraries, museums and listed buildings.
Our expertise lies in creating exceptional arts, culture and performance environments that are not only inviting and engaging, but also adaptable to a variety of uses.
Northampton Museum & Art Gallery
GSSArchitecture were appointed by West Northamptonshire Council (previously Northampton Borough Council) as Architects, Lead Consultant and Principal Designers to lead a significant expansion and extension to Northampton Museum and Art Gallery.
These refurbishments formed part of our masterplan for Northampton’s Cultural Quarter, extending the Museum into the former Gaol Block on Angel Street. Showcasing the Museum’s world renowned collection, the reclaimed space now houses a shoe gallery and the improved public facilities and commercial provision have helped to increase the Museum’s reach to a wider and more diverse audience.
The works also added a striking new build courtyard infill extension to connect the new facilities, which extends into key parts of the surrounding buildings and listed fabric and provides additional gallery space, a café and a roof terrace.
Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery
GSSArchitecture worked closely with the University of Leeds throughout all approval stages to secure funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the design and construction of this new, environmentally-controlled exhibition space.
As Architects for the scheme, the project was fully modelled using Building Information Modelling (BIM), including a fully developed model of the existing listed building elements.
The scheme involved the refurbishment of a suite of rooms to create a newly formed climatically-controlled gallery space and adjoining public engagement room. The proposed area is within the confines of an existing, larger campus building, which is Grade II Listed.
We have been appointed to lead the building designs and support the planning applications for a transformational series of capital projects at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Museum Midlands in Cosford. The designs include a new public realm, new build collections hub and the refurbishment of an existing hangar which will house a nationally relevant exhibition and learning centre dedicated to the delivery of inspirational lifelong learning programmes.
The redevelopment will enhance and improve the long-term resilience and environmental sustainability of the Museum, including moving towards being a Carbon Net Zero organisation. Hangar 1 is original to the site, built in 1938. The proposed works will retain much of the original character, with necessary fabric repair and thermal improvements making the building more efficient and easier to maintain, as well as providing an improved environment for displayed artefacts.
Custom Music Facility, Collingwood College, Durham University
The custom music studio, known as Mark Hillery Music Studios, features soundproof practice rooms, a drum and vocal booth, recording studios and a control room, together with an oak floor and a suspended ceiling of acoustic clouds. We designed the new stateof-the-art facility alongside our client, Durham University, who can now accommodate the needs of their creative art students who are able to produce music in a professional studio.
The single storey building was constructed on an existing car park at the College, adjacent to a major student circulation route to and from the campus. We adopted a sustainable approach to the design of the building, including Photovoltaic panels.
GSSArchitecture were appointed as Architects and Lead Consultants on the transformation of the Alfred East Art Gallery and Kettering Library for North Northamptonshire Council.
The scheme saw the Gallery and Library undergo refurbishment works, as well as the construction of a new two-storey contemporary extension which houses a new gallery and café, specialist art storage facilities and black box space. Externally, the Library and Gallery are further connected through the creation of new external areas, as well as enhanced accessibility via a new ramp.
The Grade II Listed Alfred East Art Gallery was built over 100 years ago, with the original designs being drawn up by John A. Gotch, the founder of GSSArchitecture.
Attenborough Arts Centre
Following an architectural competition, GSSArchitecture were appointed to design a new Contemporary Visual Arts Centre and Gallery Wing on behalf of Attenborough Arts Centre as an inclusive, multi-use facility on the University of Leicester’s City Campus.
The scheme comprised an extension of the Attenborough Arts Centre, which has significantly increased the size of the existing arts building by providing a series of interlinked spaces.
The development has been designed to be fully accessible and to utilise the latest in technology, enabling all visitors to enjoy the very best of the contemporary arts. All the galleries are subject to the Government Indemnity Scheme and extensive consultation has been undertaken with the Arts Council England to assess risks and design, to complete design reviews to validate the proposal’s technological systems, access arrangements, security and artefact protection .
The Grade II* Listed Bishop Cosin’s Library is situated at the heart of Durham’s extended World Heritage Site, between Durham Castle and Durham Cathedral, with the focus of the University at its foundation. Except for the Cathedral itself, all the buildings surrounding Palace Green are owned by Durham University, and GSS have worked on a series of refurbishment projects across a number of the interconnected buildings.
GSSArchitecture were appointed to provide a ‘one stop shop’ service for the comprehensive refurbishment of the Bishop Cosin’s Library, including Conservation Architect, Architect and Lead Consultant services with sub-contracted consultants providing all other disciplines required.
The works comprised stonework repair and replacement, repointing, and the removal and full replacement of roof coverings.
Performing Arts Centre, Stamford School
Following our completion of the masterplan, we were appointed by the School as Architects and Principal Designers for the final phase of the reorganisation of Stamford School.
This project involved the conversion of the former gym into a performing arts studio, a green room, teaching areas, music practice room and a recording studio, together with the upgrade of the hall, which involved the removal of the stage, inclusion of retractable seating and new light and sound equipment. Along with the refurbishment works, the electrical and heating systems were also upgraded.
The exterior of the 1960s gym building was also refurbished, featuring timber fins with lighting behind, which has improved the building’s appearance in its prominent location, close to the heart of Stamford’s historic town centre.
Bradwell Abbey is a Scheduled Ancient Monument which dates back to the 12th Century and, as a result of funding from Historic England in 2018 and further funding from the owner, Milton Keynes Council, and the MK City Discovery Centre, the site has undergone extensive repair over the last few years.
Appointed as Conservation Architects on the scheme, GSSArchitecture led the site-wide refurbishment which included structural repairs to the Grade I Listed chapel and Grade II Listed farmhouse.
Due to the nature of the works, our Heritage Team Lead worked collaboratively with the Project Team, Historic England, Archaeologists and Ecologists to ensure the repairs were completed sympathetically, whilst utilising methods and materials used at the time of original construction.
Palace Green Library
We were appointed to design and manage a complex series of phased renovation and conservation works to the Palace Green Library, situated at the heart of Durham’s extended UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site includes the Chancery Court Building and Bishop Cosin’s Library, which are both listed and scheduled as Ancient Monuments. The buildings also house Durham University’s heritage collections of archives, manuscripts and rare books.
The scheme included public exhibition and interpretation space for the University’s archival and museum treasures. Part of the works also included the careful conservation of the 1669 Bishop Cosin’s Library back to its former glory. The ‘Dunelm’ and ‘Treasures’ Exhibition Galleries are the showpieces of the Library complex and were designed in consultation with the Museums Libraries and Archives Council to accommodate major national exhibitions, including display of the Lindisfarne and St. Cuthbert Gospels.
We were appointed by Durham University to undertake a major phased conservation, regeneration and refurbishment of the listed Palace Green Library Complex, located at the Durham UNESCO World Heritage Site. A significant part of the project included conservation works to the highly regarded Pace Building, designed by the architect George Pace.
Located within the Pace Building, the Barker Research Library has been transformed to create a purpose-built space for readers to study archives and special collections. The Library offers full Search Room services and houses a wide range of archive material, early printed books and other special collections, including 70,000+ books printed before 1850, with 300 incunables; over 1,000 medieval manuscripts; 3,400 metres of archives and artefacts; over 30,000 maps and prints, and 100,000 photographs.
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts invited GSSArchitecture to assist in seeking further assistance from the Arts Council for Lottery funding, and also to co-ordinate detailed production information and project management services to enable the completion of this project.
The £4m scheme involved refurbishment of listed buildings, the construction of a 220-seat auditorium, a dance studio, a restaurant, and an art gallery, together with associated accommodation.
The theatre provides a complex of auditoria layouts, variable acoustics, and high specification lighting and sound equipment.
5 no. sophisticated art features were integral to the project and involved close collaboration between the artists, contractors and GSSArchitecture.
Theatre Refurbishments
East Durham College enlisted the help of GSSArchitecture to evaluate and present architectural, mechanical, electrical and acoustic enhancements for their Peterlee Campus. This was undertaken to bolster the College’s bid for T-Level funding, to enable them to offer technical courses centering on the campus’s specialisation in entertainment and performing arts.
The project involved modifications and refurbishments including the installation of an acoustically treated modular recording room system, enabling students to achieve studio-quality acoustic conditions. Moreover, several audio performance, practice, and recording spaces were provided with new state of the art AV connectivity.
Additionally, improvements involved the provision of specialised equipment, along with refurbished wall and floor finishes.
GSSArchitecture worked as Architects on various phases of the repairs and restoration to the Grade II Listed Mrs. Smith’s Cottage, for North Kesteven District Council (NKDC). This unique project involved bringing the museum, part of which was constructed in the 1830s, back into public use whilst maintaining the look and feel of this wellpreserved time capsule.
Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and NKDC, GSS have successfully delivered the necessary refurbishment, including new services throughout, redecoration, and structural repairs to the building, in addition to creating a new external exhibition space with disabled access, inside an adjacent property recently purchased by the Council.
Mrs. Smith’s Cottage
Bradgate Park Visitor Centre
Bradgate House is the birthplace and childhood home of Lady Jane Grey, and the visitor centre is located towards the centre of the 830 acre parkland in former agricultural buildings.
Appointed as Architects and Principal Designers, we worked with the Bradgate Park Trust to design a space suitable for fit-out by the Exhibition Designer, in which exhibits display the history of the park, its geology, ecology and wildlife. Previously unused parts of the building were integrated into the design of the exhibits where restricted headroom may have presented obstacles.
Part of Phase 1 moved the administration offices onto the first floor, freeing up space for the reorganisation of the cafeteria, which will be in Phase 2. Natural materials and stainless steel hinges provide a robust setting into which the exhibition spaces have been inserted, with their high quality finishes and exhibition cases, etc.
services, specialist teams & procurement
Our work includes the full range of services covering architectural design, feasibilities, 3D graphics and animation, interior design, estate strategies, heritage and conservation, principal designer and one-stop-shop.
Our specialist in-house teams are collaborating with industry leaders to research and develop the latest technologies and processes that can be incorporated into our designs.
Professional services frameworks have become increasingly important over recent years as a method to engage construction professionals in a way that ensures compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and promotes a more streamlined way of partnering in the longer term.
As a practice, we have secured positions on a range of established, UK compliant frameworks, which enables easier, quicker and cheaper procurement routes for our clients.
Architectural Services Feasibilities
As experienced Architects we can work with you to explore your options and realise your vision.
We can bring a wide range of innovations and best practice from our different sectors to meet your specific needs and aspirations. This experience includes masterplanning, new builds, remodelling and extensions and specialist heritage advice.
We will work with you in a collaborative way to develop a workable brief to explore design concepts and options, to manage your project through the planning process, the development of detailed design proposals, details and specifications, together with preparing all necessary statutory approval processes.
Feasibility studies are an extremely important part of the development process. By carefully mapping out your options, risks, constraints, and opportunities we can present creative proposals and scheme appraisals that are deliverable, viable and fit for purpose. Developing your brief is fundamental to this process.
Our highly experienced teams work on a wide variety of projects, ranging in both sector and size. This means that the knowledge, experience and ‘lessons learnt’ can be brought to benefit your feasibility brief and our experience allows your dedicated project team to explore all the options quickly and effectively to arrive at an appropriate project delivery strategy.
Masterplanning
A good masterplan is not just about the distribution of land use, it should provide you with a sound starting point to create healthy communities and well-planned development strategies. A masterplan should give you a carefully considered and well thought out long-term planning document that serves as a conceptual plan to guide future growth and development.
Masterplanning is all about setting the standard that creates an appropriate sense of place, connecting buildings with social, public and cultural spaces to create environments that help communities to thrive.
3D Graphics & Animation
As a streamlined part of our service offering, 3DLABS is our in-house digital design studio that specialises in CGI visualisations, 3D printing and people flow modelling. They offer these services to communicate our clients’ designs, concepts, products or services to a wider audience, allowing them to be represented in the most visually appealing medium.
They have been offering these services for nearly a decade, gathering a diverse client base with their own unique needs and requirements.
The studio is made up of a highly skilled team, led by their Studio Manager who has over 15 years of industry experience. He is supported by a team who each bring their own passions and specialisms, with photorealistic renders, interior design, and graphic design to name a few.
Interior Design
In recent years, there has been an increased awareness of how the built environment can impact health and productivity, and its added benefits to help institutions flourish. Organisations are now focusing their efforts on how to use the built environment for mental health and wellbeing by encouraging choice, movement and relaxation, controlling temperature, noise levels and air quality, ergonomic furniture, plants, and adding breakout areas. These are all fundamental components of good interior design.
Our interior design services include interior layouts and drawings, internal elevations, room data sheets, space planning and interior architecture, furniture selection and accessories, custom furniture and textile design and colour palette consultation.
Estates Strategies
Estate Strategies are critically important documents to have in place to provide a framework and direction for how an estate needs to grow and evolve to support you in delivering your strategic objectives. Estate strategies are important to a number of our higher education clients for example, and we have worked with a number of UK based universities to help them define their strategies.
Good strategies can add value to other large estates such as landed estates or multi-academy trusts. Our teams have the depth of skills and experience in-house to work with you and your estates teams to consider whole estate strategies and how individual projects might fit into the ‘bigger picture.’
Heritage
If you are an owner or custodian of buildings with historical significance, we can help you understand your properties, advise on the best techniques to care for them and make sensitive changes that will mean your heritage assets are both successful and sustainable.
Whether a simple Grade II* Listed house or a complex World Heritage Site, all heritage assets have their own story and unique value, and getting the right advice from a well-qualified, specialist team can really make a difference.
Principal Designer - CDM
The importance of the Principal Designer - Construction Design and Management (CDM) role should not be underestimated and the skills that make a good Principal Designer should never be omitted from a development project. Fundamentally, a good Principal Designer helps to ensure that everyone involved in construction stays safe during the course of their work and complies with the statutory duties, and we often provide this service on schemes where we have also been appointed as Architect and/or Lead Consultant.
GSS can give you the confidence of knowing that our organisational approach to Health and Safety is led from partner level, ensuring that all our teams receive regular training, making certain that processes are in place to plan and manage health and safety throughout the project and helping to protect everyone’s health and safety.
Principal Designer - BR
The appointment of a Principal Designer – Building Regulations (BR) is required for all construction projects from small domestic extensions to complex multi-millionpound developments, and we often provide this service on schemes where we have also been appointed as Architect and/or Lead Consultant. If your project is classed as a ‘Higher-Risk Building’ under the Building Safety Act 2022, then additional requirements apply.
Our Principal Designers have undergone competency assessments in line with PAS 8671 requirements and will be able to assist and guide you in navigating your legal duties under the Building Safety Act 2022. They will ensure that you fully understand your duties before any design work commences.
One Stop Shop
Successful construction projects rely on the right balance between design and project control, including project and cost management. We can offer you a streamlined consulting service bringing together all of the design team partners that you need from across our network of supply chain partners.
Using a one stop shop service is not right for everyone, but it can mean that you benefit from a single point of contact for your integrated design team. Our teams will use their construction knowledge and cost planning experience to offer expert advice on construction approaches and procurement options. This begins from the initial feasibility testing of a project, right through until the handover of the completed building.
All successful partnerships are founded on taking a truly collaborative approach to achieving common aims and objectives. Clear communication is therefore an essential part of collaboration, alongside developing and nurturing a culture of working together as one team. GSS have a successful track record of achieving excellent outcomes through working collaboratively and we can draw on our experience and lessons learnt over the years to encourage and drive collaboration.
Sustainability
With climate change being one of the biggest challenges we face in our lifetime, GSS are committed to ensuring our projects are designed to incorporate innovative, sustainable solutions that not only benefit the building user, but the wider environment.
Our in-house Sustainability Innovation Group is collaborating with industry leaders to research and develop the latest technologies and sustainable processes that can be incorporated into our designs. The basic objectives of sustainability are to reduce consumption of non-renewable resources, minimise waste, and create healthy, productive environments.
Artificial Intelligence
GSS’s in-house Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation Group is responsible for providing comprehensive guidance and assistance, ensuring the safe and appropriate utilisation of AI within our work.
This dedicated team from across the UK actively explores both the limitations and opportunities of AI, striving to enhance quality and efficiency. We have implemented a structured plan that is aimed at identifying opportunities through harnessing the latest advancements in AI technology and the team will research and assess these to ensure that they align with our moral and ethical standards.
Fostering a collaborative environment, the group encourages innovation and integration of AI technologies that can add value to our clients. Their efforts include developing customised AI solutions, training for wider GSS team members, and overseeing a robust framework for AI governance.
Our in-house AI Innovation Group plays a crucial role in driving GSS’s commitment to leveraging the benefits of AI and maintaining our competitive edge in the industry.
Net Zero Carbon
Many of our clients have set Net Zero Carbon or Carbon Neutral targets for their buildings and estates through either decarbonisation of their current estate, or through targeting Net Zero Carbon in new buildings or investments.
We are also on our own route to becoming Carbon Neutral by 2030, a target which, although complex and challenging, we believe to be realistic and genuine.
Health and Wellbeing
There is an increasing awareness of how our environment can affect our physical and mental health and the impact that this has on our productivity and wellbeing. The Covid pandemic has reinforced the importance of good mental and physical health for everyone in society and there is an increased focus on the need for more human-centred, sustainable environments that support the people who work and live in them.
We understand that good design is at the centre of this and has real power to improve people’s lives and support organisations, delivering places that support health, comfort, and happiness. The quality of environment can help to reduce staff turnover, improve outputs, and attract new people to an organisation.
Our designers are trained to look at how new and existing buildings, and external spaces, can deliver high quality places that are not only functional, adaptable, and efficient but also welcoming, inclusive and supportive.
Procurement
Professional services frameworks have become increasingly important over recent years as a method to engage construction professionals in a way that ensures compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and that promotes a more streamlined way of partnering in the longer term.
As a practice, we have secured positions on a range of established, UK compliant frameworks, which enables easier, quicker and cheaper procurement routes for our clients. In addition to our national and regional frameworks, GSS have also secured places on a number of university frameworks across the country.
For more information on our frameworks and how you can appoint GSSArchitecture for your project, please visit our website via the below QR code:
Scan for more information on our frameworks.
Architects Lead Consultants Masterplanners
KETTERING
LONDON LEEDS
HARROGATE MILTON KEYNES
NEWCASTLE