Together we can...
drive sustainable change
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 from inception through to completion, all of which are supported by inhouse specialist divisions including Graphics and Conservation and Heritage.
Together, we can bring your vision to life.
sustainability
Sustainability in the built environment is an ever-growing responsibility for practices across the UK, particularly as the construction industry contributes significantly to the world’s carbon emissions. Our services at GSSArchitecture demonstrate our commitment to delivering sustainability-led design solutions that support both our clients and their projects. We take a fully integrated approach that encompasses carbon reduction, energy efficiency, environmental standards, and health and wellbeing, enabling our team to create positive environmental outcomes and long-term value across all our work.
We bring extensive experience in designing and delivering projects aligned with low-carbon and Net Zero objectives, including BREEAM Outstanding and RIBA Climate Challenge standards. In addition, we are committed to championing the efficiencies and sustainable benefits of retrofit, prioritising the reuse and adaptation of existing buildings. By adopting a fabric-first methodology, selecting materials carefully, and implementing targeted interventions, we aim to lower operational energy demand and embodied carbon while respecting each building’s cultural, social, and environmental significance.
The services we offer at GSSArchitecture reflect our commitment to delivering sustainably led design solutions that support you and your projects: Click here to find out more: Our Services
Silbury House
Accredited to Fitwel 3 Stars, the refurbishment works at Silbury House enhance the building’s energy performance through targeted thermal improvements and the integration of renewable energy systems, supporting wider carbon reduction goals of Milton Keynes. Guided by a progressive client brief and a holistic design approach, the project delivers a welcoming internal and external environment that positively influences occupant wellbeing and productivity.
In addition, Silbury House achieved an EPC A rating and was designed to meet BREEAM standards. The refurbishment included the installation of 116 rooftop solar panels which generates up to 20% of its energy demand. Enhancements such as advanced air-quality monitoring, a new courtyard garden, and ergonomic, sustainably sourced furniture create a workplace designed to support employee health and comfort.
Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre
NZIIC brings together insight, resources, and partnerships to grow net zero capabilities and opportunities; positioning Teesside at the heart of the UK’s green industrial revolution, providing a focus for major investment and helping to create hundreds more clean energy jobs. It also supports the University’s commitment to becoming a Net Zero Institution by 2030. To support this drive for clean energy, the project achieves the RIBA 2025 Climate Challenge, achieving 562kgCOe/m², well below the threshold for this category.
This building is accredited to BREEAM Outstanding and utilises efficient MEP strategies including photovoltaic panels and air source heat pumps, higher recycled content of materials throughout, and higher cement replacement. Additionally, significant improvements to Part L regulations were made across all elements, including a 15% improvement on air permeability.
The project won the Green Apple Environment Award in 2024, recognising environmental best practice around the world as well as regional and national Constructing Excellence awards for sustainability in 2024.
Bedford Academy Extension
The Bedford Academy extension has been designed to achieve Net Zero Carbon in operation, placing sustainability at the heart of its delivery. A high-performance thermal envelope, combined with exceptional airtightness, underpins the building’s energy efficiency. Following air testing, the expansion achieved an outstanding score of 0.46 ACH50, significantly surpassing the original 2 ACH50 target and performing well beyond Passive House standards. This was achieved through the effective application of Passive Purple, a specialised airtight paint and vapour control layer that optimises sealing across the building fabric.
The fully electrified building utilises highly efficient Air Source Heat Pumps for space heating and benefits from the progressive decarbonisation of the national grid. 70% of the roof is covered in photovoltaic panels, further reducing operational energy demand. Carefully sized openings support natural ventilation and daylighting, while brise-soleil shading mitigates overheating. The result is a modern, future-focused learning environment that combines high performance with long-term sustainability.
The Catalyst
The Catalyst is one of the first commercial buildings in Newcastle to achieve accredited BREEAM Outstanding status, demonstrating what can be delivered at scale through a progressive, performance-led approach. Exceeding original targets, the building achieved an EPC B rating with a 27% improvement on projected CO₂ emissions, recording just 16.6kgCO₂/ m² per year.
Designed in response to future climate change, a siphonic drainage system feeds a rain garden that manages surface water while showcasing SuDS principles. An extensive green roof provides additional attenuation, supports biodiversity and is engineered to withstand a 1-in-100-year storm event plus 40% climate change allowance.
A connection to the district energy centre enables managed heating, cooling and hot water generation, supported by a 30kW rooftop PV array. During construction, 98.6% of waste was diverted from landfill, with total project emissions equating to 260.49 tonnes CO₂e.
The DigECare Hub
Our team specialises in developing and delivering sustainable strategies that respond to environmental performance, user wellbeing and long-term resilience. At the DigECare Hub for Newcastle University, GSSArchitecture acted as Lead Designer and Sustainability and Net Zero Carbon Assessor.
We undertook the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) at RIBA Stages 2 and 3 using One Click LCA, providing robust whole-life carbon analysis to guide the design toward RIBA Climate Challenge 2030 targets. Through targeted workshops, we embedded clear sustainability objectives across all stages. Carbon performance informed material selection, building systems, and envelope optimisation. Additionally, we established tangible performance targets, including a 20% improvement beyond Part L requirements, supported by maximising on-site renewable energy generation through photovoltaic panels across available roof areas.
Biophilic principles were integrated into the sustainability strategy, with brown roofs, green walls, and SuDS contributing to biodiversity enhancement while supporting environmental and carbon objectives.
services, specialist teams & procurement
Our work includes the full range of services covering architectural design, feasibilities, 3D graphics and animation, interior design, estate strategies, conservation and heritage, 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, Find a Tender (OJEU replacement) compliant formal 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 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 Principal Designer
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.
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 our projects are designed to incorporate innovative, sustainable solutions that not only benefit the building user, but the wider environment.
Our in-house Sustainability Working 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) Working 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 working group encourages innovation and integration of AI technologies that can add value for 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 Working 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 are not only functional, adaptable, and efficient but are 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 has 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
MILTON KEYNES
LONDON