Together we can...
shape the future
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 and 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.
With over 400 education clients nationally, GSSArchitecture has acquired significant knowledge and experience in the higher education sector. Many of these relationships are longstanding and cover a considerable range of projects, including; leisure, science, technology, engineering and student accommodation. Recent projects have included the development of international research facilities into higher education learning environments.
Together, we can bring your vision to life.
higher education
We have gained a strong reputation for delivering well-considered and technically complex projects across the UK for our higher education clients. Many of our relationships are longstanding and cover a considerable range of projects, including leisure, science, technology, engineering, health, and student living.
Our recent projects have included the development of international research facilities into higher education learning environments, together with new build multi-million-pound schemes that offer sustainable design solutions.
At GSS, we understand the importance of how an environment can affect people’s wellbeing, therefore we ensure that we deliver all projects with the users’ needs at the forefront of the design. To ensure the best results are achieved, our specialist in-house research and development teams are consulted on our projects to ensure we incorporate the latest technologies and processes into our designs and that projects are delivered as an integral part of the wider context and higher education estate.
The Catalyst
The Catalyst is one of the most significant recent developments in the Newcastle region and provides a range of bespoke, flexible facilities to promote innovation, engage with local and national businesses, and support the development of new technology in the fields of ageing sciences and data.
As home to Newcastle University’s teams for both the National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) and the National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD), The Catalyst brings together businesses, academics and members of the public to collaborate and support the research and development of new ageing and data products and services.
The internal spaces provide engaging and flexible environments that create a sense of openness and accessibility. Exhibition, event and meeting spaces have been designed to encourage wider interaction with local businesses, industry partners, and members of the public.
Dame Margaret Barbour Building
The Dame Margaret Barbour Building forms an important addition to Newcastle University’s campus, and houses a range of cutting-edge teaching and learning facilities. The open access building includes specialist spaces for the School of Sport, Exercise and Nutritional Sciences, the School of Psychology and the School of Medical Education, as well as seminar rooms and lecture theatres. The new facilities were driven by an increasing number of students applying for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and the appeal of an increasingly diverse undergraduate provision.
The innovative building provides functional and flexible facilities, and has been designed to facilitate integrated research by promoting collaboration between disciplines through shared encounter spaces and the provision of social breakout areas. Research shows that this approach to design supports the development of cross-disciplinary research and teaching, integrating both the physical and psychological aspects of exercise in relation to health and performance.
Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre
The Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre (NZIIC), designed for Teesside University, supports the ongoing drive for clean energy and positions Teesside at the heart of the UK’s green industrial revolution, providing a focus for major investment. It also supports the University’s commitment to becoming a Net Zero Institution by 2030.
The ambitious new development brings together expert insight, resources, and partnerships to grow net zero capabilities and opportunities, placing the region at the forefront of the clean energy agenda and helping to create hundreds more clean energy jobs.
A national centre of excellence, the NZIIC draws on our expertise in both the education and commercial sectors and combines this with our sustainable and net zero credentials. Not only is the NZIIC an area for net zero development, the building itself is also classed as net zero and has been constructed using suitable techniques and materials to minimise the carbon footprint, together with achieving a BREEAM rating of Outstanding.
Business School
Durham University’s world-renowned Business School is one of an elite group of UK Schools with Triple Accreditation. Its facilities were, however, in need of expansion and modernisation, and GSSArchitecture were commissioned to design this new facility.
The design accommodates a full range of academic operations from undergraduate and postgraduate study to corporate functions and management training. The development includes an iconic, fully-glazed extension to improve the façade and create improved circulation. The curved nature of the extension facilitates informal areas, allowing users to interact, and the circulation routes help to create engaging space, which promotes movement and activity.
A holistic approach to sustainability was at the heart of this project.
Hope St Xchange
We were appointed by the University of Sunderland to lead a consultant design team for the provision of a new Enterprise and Innovation Centre in the heart of Sunderland City Centre.
The state-of-the-art building provides bespoke, cutting-edge facilities to support the development of new business ideas and improvements to industrial processes. Small business start-up opportunities have been made available through the provision of adaptable office accommodation, supported by engagement with other local businesses.
The ground floor of the hub was designed to include a combination of social spaces and innovation laboratories, to be used for prototyping workshops and 3D printing, whilst the remainder of the four-storey building includes a mix of conference facilities, meeting rooms and flexible office space.
Mathematical & Computer Sciences Building
We were appointed to deliver Durham University’s Mathematical and Computer Sciences Building which forms part of the masterplan to provide improved infrastructure and additional teaching and research spaces.
This cutting-edge building provides office space for both professors and PhD students, in addition to having a number of specialist laboratories, including a heavy-duty and an open IT lab with designated server room. The building houses a 120-seat tiered lecture theatre, tutorial rooms, café, flexible event space, enterprise hub, meeting rooms and breakout spaces.
We have worked with the University for over 20 years and have an in-depth understanding of their key requirements and long-term strategies, which was a great benefit throughout the delivery of this key building. The sustainable focus of the project encouraged a fabric first approach to design, with the aim of achieving a BREEAM Excellent rating.
Houldsworth Engineering Centre
The University of Leeds Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences is one of the largest in the UK, grouping together five teaching and research schools, with an excess of 700 staff and 3,500 students. We were responsible for delivering all architectural detail design requirements from RIBA Stage 3 onwards.
The development was created to house new faculty, teaching and research facilities on the upper floors, and a range of key facilities on the lower floors, including lecture theatres, a 24-hour IT drop-in cluster for students, additional teaching spaces, and new research laboratories.
On this project, we have been able to utilise our specific expertise in the delivery of complex higher education projects to deliver firstclass facilities for the end users, whilst also demonstrating our ability to deliver complicated technical refurbishments in an effective manner, maintaining design integrity and working within defined cost constraints.
Barker Research Library
We were appointed by Durham University to undertake a major phased conservation, regeneration and refurbishment of the listed Palace Green Library Site, 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.
Collingwood College Music Rooms
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 has been 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 photo-voltaic panels.
Bishop Cosin’s Library
Originally built in 1669, Bishop Cosin’s Library is one of the earliest public libraries in the North East of England and was granted Designated status in 2005, identifying the library and collections as being of national and international importance. The library has been run by Durham University since 1832, with further buildings added during the Victorian period and in 1966, resulting in the set of buildings now known as Palace Green Library.
Bishop Cosin’s Library came with many challenges, but with the support and guidance of our specialist in-house Conservation and Heritage Team, we successfully completed the conservation of the Grade II* listed library, using sympathetic materials and methods to ensure the history of the building was preserved.
The works to Bishop Cosin’s Library are the latest in a complex series of phased renovation and regeneration works to the Palace Green Library site which involved the removal of the majority of the roof in order to correct the ingress of water to the library in order to protect the interiors and priceless collections from damage.
Yorkshire House Research Centre for Social Sciences
We were appointed to lead the designs for the refurbishments of Yorkshire House Research Centre for Social Science for the University of York.
The remodelling included a new reception, office spaces and meeting rooms to create an inclusive and accessible workplace that incorporates modern methods of working, including hot desking and virtual collaboration pods.
The designs included an open plan office for focused study and hotdesking, as well as open plan circulation which created a ‘street’ like appearance, enabling a sense of community and chance interactions. Booths were also incorporated which provide social soft seating and agile working. The use of earthy tones in the interior design have created a connection to the outside and promote mental wellbeing, in addition to planting and vegetation that create a welcoming atmosphere.
Student Gateways
We were appointed to design two projects to enhance the Student Gateways at City Campus and St Peter’s Campus, aimed at realigning and improving the Gateway service across Sunderland University.
The main objective for the Student Gateways was to provide a one stop shop where students could access guidance and advice. This includes student support, careers and informal study areas, with a focus on the University’s careers employability service, Sunderland Futures.
The Gateway has been developed based around modern principles of Nordic architecture. The use of timber, natural materials and pastel colours have been included within the design to create a modern, yet calming and welcoming environment.
James Barber House Student Accommodation
James Barber House, a former a residential care home that now forms part of Durham University Hatfield College’s postgraduate accommodation, has undergone extensive renovations to fully transform the existing 45 single bedrooms and shared bathrooms to create en-suite accommodation as well as improved kitchen and dining space and common room.
As well as the internal renovations, the externals received new insulation, roof, render, windows and doors which were all updated to improve the thermal performance of the fabric. PV panels have been introduced alongside a student herb garden that is located in the internal courtyard, providing opportunities for students to grow their own food, whilst improving the biodiversity of the site and the building’s sustainable credentials.
Courtyard Student Accommodation
We provided a one stop shop service and led a consultant design team for the provision of a new student residences project, located at the University of Hull’s Cottingham Road Campus.
The development provides circa 600 bedspaces, including standard rooms, deluxe rooms and studio flats, together with living and learning spaces, communal kitchens and social spaces. Externally, green flat roofs provide an attractive appearance for the overlooking accommodation.
The scheme also includes a large social space, named the ‘Social Hub’, which provides a collection of facilities to encourage social interaction and engagement with the wider University. This area contains features such as a ‘MasterChef’ style kitchen, a cinema space, games areas and quiet reading room.
Medical & Biological Engineering Centre
The Medical and Biological Engineering Centre for the University of Leeds develops new ways to extend human joint and cardiovascular health, and is one of the world’s top 10 bioengineering research institutes. Using a Design and Build procurement route, we were appointed by Miller Construction to design the project from Stage 3 to completion. The new steel frame extension was designed using a structural insulated panel external wall system, clad with Portland stone. This helped to enhance the image and profile of the Centre within the University Campus, a key requirement of the brief. The construction process was challenging, given the restricted access to the site, and required careful planning and sequencing.
The new facilities help to support research, development and delivery of new types of intervention for musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. The building provides much needed research office facilities to support the Cartilage Biotribology and Knee Simulation Laboratories.
ICM Immunology Laboratory
We were appointed to lead a consultant design team to deliver an Inflammation and Immunology Research Laboratory for the Institute of Cellular Medicine for Newcastle University.
The project involved a significant level of complex refurbishment and remodelling within a live medical building which, in part, is occupied by both the University and the NHS Trust. The development has provided a range of new, high-end, bio-containment laboratories, tissue culture rooms, write-up rooms and seminar spaces.
The new open plan laboratory is of the highest quality required to deliver outstanding research. The new facility has brought together key researchers, who previously worked across the building and city, into a single laboratory. This is already allowing for new opportunities to share techniques and build stronger collaborations.
Worksmart Initiative
Worksmart is a cross campus initiative by the University to provide activity based, agile working space for professional services staff. This creates a wider range of choices on where and how they can work when on campus. The initiative is in response to the shift to home working following the Covid-19 pandemic, and the drive to reduce the number of dedicated staff offices, releasing space for learning and other student centred activities.
GSS provided architectural and interior designer services to deliver three Worksmart locations, working with the University to create a range of different space types, atmospheres and styles of furniture to support different work tasks and preferences of working style.
Teaching & Learning Refurbishment
Durham University is in the process of refurbishing its Teaching & Learning spaces with an aim to deliver excellence in Research and Education. As part of this ongoing process, the University has identified areas of opportunity where improvements to existing faculty buildings can support overarching aims to continue to stimulate scholarship, innovation, and collaborative study.
We were appointed to provide multi-disciplinary services to deliver a 5-year refurbishment programme which comprised improvements to the Arthur Holmes, Elvet Riverside, Chemistry, and Psychology buildings. The main intentions of the scheme were to provide fresh and interactive teaching spaces, improving comfortability and bringing them up to current standards.
Attenborough Arts Centre
We were appointed by the University of Leicester to deliver an inclusive multi-use Arts Centre as a purpose-made home for contemporary visual art. The new wing has increased the size of the arts building by 50%, and has created a series of interlinked spaces together with an external sculpture garden, which is open to the public; ultimately making it one of the largest contemporary art spaces in the East Midlands.
The publicly-accessible art gallery uses the latest technology and delivers three temporary exhibitions per year, giving free entry to the public. Extending the ‘performance and creative learning’ offer, the gallery endeavours to encourage new audiences and communities to engage with Attenborough Arts programming. The gallery will also bring local, national and international contemporary art to eager audiences in Leicester, uniquely adding to the cultural value and vitality of the city.
St Thomas Street Student Accommodation
We designed a new 9-storey, 8,575m2 student accommodation scheme in Bristol City Centre. The accommodation block provides 357 student bedspaces, and was delivered specifically to support the University of Bristol.
The project sits in the Redcliff Development Quarter of Bristol and forms an important part of the exciting regeneration of the area. The demolition of an existing office block facilitated the delivery of the new student accommodation, which comprises a mix of cluster flats and studios, student social areas, a dedicated courtyard, commercial space, laundry facilities and games area.
The building is one of the very first in Bristol to connect to the Councilrun district heating network, ensuring delivery of a new low-carbon building that forms the first stage of transforming Bristol into a carbon-neutral city by 2050.
Health Innovation Neighbourhood
The £500 million Health Innovation Neighbourhood masterplan will transform a former 29-acre general hospital site into a new, ambitious neighbourhood combining high-quality housing alongside public realm allied to modern healthcare, education and community facilities that will foster research, innovation and enterprise. The development will feature advanced infrastructure to support housing solutions that promote longer, healthier lives.
The masterplan includes research and innovation facilities, business, employment and education space, NHS and other health-related facilities, alongside 1,250 new homes. The residential space is intended to deliver a range of multigenerational dwellings across a variety of tenures including, co-living units, market rent, later and supported living homes and specialist housing.
We are working closely with Newcastle University and their partners, including Newcastle City Council and Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NuTH), to develop plans that will establish this site as the world’s premier centre for healthy ageing and living.
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 that promote 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 Estate 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 inhouse 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 to 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 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 wellqualified, specialist team can really make the difference.
Principal Designer - CDM
The importance of the Principal Designer’s role cannot 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 Architects and/or Lead Consultants.
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 our projects 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 multimillion-pound developments. 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 their 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 are 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 peoples’ 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 is not only functional, adaptable, and efficient but is 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:
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