At WT Architecture we make buildings that are a joy to live, work & meet in.

WT Architecture are award-winning contemporary Scottish Architects, with bases just outside Edinburgh in South Queensferry and in Argyll. Our work covers projects large and small across Scotland; from landmark visitor centres and community hubs to beautifully detailed houses, extensions and bothies.

Everything we work on is created around an ethos of craftsmanship, collaboration and connection to place. Our ambition is to make buildings which are meaningful in the lives of those that inhabit them, responding to and growing from our clients’ needs and desires, and which are timeless in their materiality and relationship to the context they sit in.

Creating architecture which belongs to its place and landscape sits at the heart of our design approach.

WT Architecture work across Scotland and the UK in some of the most beautiful, sensitive and historic places in the country.

Designing for these places means understanding the historic, climatic, seasonal, cultural, social and environmental nature of a site. It means spending time with our clients and learning what makes a site valuable to them. This in depth understanding of place is what allows us to construct compelling narratives for our buildings which engage planners, neighbours, communities and invest meaning in our architecture for the people that use the spaces and places we create.

We have worked successfully in protected landscapes, Listed buildings and in the context of national monuments, and approach every design process with an ambition to produce architecture that is respectful of the landscape and built environment it sits in. We are equally experienced in the climatic demands of working in some of Scotland’s wildest and most exposed landscapes and skilled in meeting the challenges of complex inner-city sites.

Our team are a dynamic group of talented, experienced and award-winning architects.

Founded in 2006 by Studio Principal, William Tunnell, WT Architecture has grown to include eight qualified architects, three architectural assistants, a practice manager and an architectural technician. Our architectural team members are all exceptional designers and we pride ourselves on our professionalism and dedication to our projects.

Our studios in Edinburgh and Argyll are based on an ethos of innovation, mutual support and respect, and passion for what we do. We programme and resource our projects to allow our teams the space and time to deliver a personal and high quality service and are always looking for ways to further our skills and expertise through training and research.

Whatever the scale of work we are involved in, we bring to it an attention to detail and a commitment to finding exceptional solutions to our client’s brief. We take seriously our role in meeting the varied demands of budget, programme and local policy that characterise our wide range of building types, private, public and commercial clients and sites near and far.

Read more about our teams, design process and life in our studios here. 

Collaboration and team work lies at the heart of our design process and in the way we deliver projects to completion. We believe that a building’s success lies in the quality of communication with the vast numbers of people who contribute to its realisation. From early conversations with our clients on their brief, through collaborative design processes, engagement with local authorities, working closely with our design team and the formation of strong and respectful relationships with our contractors, we approach the delivery of buildings as a joint endeavor.

We model our designs in detail at an early stage in the design process, making construction methods, craftsmanship and innovation an integral part of design development from the start. Our completed projects are testament to an enjoyment of the materials we use and the skill of the joiners, steelworkers, masons, plumbers, electricians, groundworkers and carpenters who deliver the completed building. We dedicate a high proportion of time during the construction period to attendance on site, ensuring that the construction team have clarity on the design ambitions behind a particular detail and allowing the opportunity to incorporate their experience into the final construction.

We believe that good architecture can bring people together and help to foster the network of interactions that grows and sustains a community. We also believe that to make the kind of buildings that can lay claim to this ideal, a design team needs to really understand the place and people they are working with, not only for public community buildings but for private spaces too; homes which exist within a network of neighbours and local communities and tradespeople.

The business of turning a design from a concept to a beautiful work of craftsmanship and innovation is often a long and complex one. We acknowledge that our relationship with our clients, especially on community projects, can sometimes last years before the first turf is cut on a site and our commitment to building trust, collaboration, support and respect reflects this. We work hard at all stages to ensure that the way in which our buildings are made do justice to the design intent that underpins the proposals. Most of all we aim to build as inspiring and affirming an experience as possible of the making of the project for our clients to take with them as they begin to occupy the buildings that will become their homes, work places and gathering spaces.

Read more about our work with the people of the Isle of Iona on the journey towards a new Village Hall at the heart of their community here.

Find out more about the community we are building through our ASPECT:Cinema film series: exploring the things that bring architecture to life on screen.