Latest

Tim Taylor’s new artwork at Hidden Door Festival 2023 31.05.2023
Kirsty Watt and Charlie Porter’s Architecture Fringe 2023 event: Unseen At Night 30.05.2023
Eduardo Paolozzi Mural in Leith: Planning submitted 12.05.2023
TALKS AT THE LANE: Season 2 Creative Scotland Crowdmatch Campaign 23.03.2023
GRAS lecture at ESALA, 28 Feb 2023 08.03.2023
Part 3 Exams: Congratulations to Charlie Porter and Kirsty Watt 03.03.2023
The Gathering Hand Exhibition: Custom Lane 01.03.2023
Stephen Copp’s archaeological work recently published in ‘On the Edge of a Roman Port, Excavations at Koutsongila, Kenchreai, 2007-2014’ 08.02.2023
New Roles at GRAS: Technologist 22.12.2022
Studio Day Out — Glasgow for the day 07.12.2022
View all entries

GRAS is an award-winning architecture and design studio based in Edinburgh. By focusing on timeless design principles we develop refined yet characterful solutions that put the needs of users first.

Studio_GRAS_HighRes-00067

Building the future with a little help from the past, our projects span cultural, commercial, residential and leisure sectors, including building conservation, renovation, adaptive re-use and new-builds. Such diverse output demands an intuitive, yet responsive and highly contextual approach, ensuring no two projects are the same.

We work closely with our clients and contractors to ensure we deliver excellence at every stage of the design and development process. We bring our wide-ranging experience and expertise to each project, whether it’s the restoration of a historic building, the realisation of a new family home or the design and fit out of a boutique retail space. Our work is always bespoke and centred around an understanding of our social and ecological responsibility.

Studio_GRAS_HighRes-00060

GRAS was formed in 2020 from the consolidation of two successful, family-run practices. Groves-Raines Architects was established in Edinburgh in 1972 by Nicholas Groves-Raines and Kristin Hannesdottir.

Studio_GRAS_HighRes-00100

The studio spent over four decades restoring and adapting some of Scotland’s most significant listed buildings. In 2017, its founding directors were awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland for their service to Scotland’s built heritage.

Groves-Raines Architects Studio (GRAS) was set up in 2006 to focus on delivering progressive, sustainable and ambitious design solutions, ranging in typology and scale from handheld objects to urban planning. Headed by Nicholas and Kristin’s son Gunnar, the interdisciplinary practice brings a broad range of skills to projects in order to provide clients with a comprehensive service.

For over a decade, the two studios have worked together, using their complementary skills to deliver award-winning projects. Now incorporated as a single entity and with Gunnar Groves-Raines as director, GRAS will continue to benefit from the diverse skills of a team comprising design architects, conservation-accredited architects, building surveyors, archaeologists, interior designers, graphic designers, technologists, and fabricators.

Studio_GRAS_HighRes-00003

As architects, we are aware of our responsibilities to produce timeless projects that will endure and be enjoyed by future generations.

Our team’s specialist skills in conservation planning and affinity for historic fabric ensure that our interventions are based on a deep understanding that allows seamless integration of the old and the new.

We are a dynamic studio, evolving and adapting as the world around us changes. We embrace opportunities afforded by the evolution of new technologies, while constantly scouring history to revisit past practices which might help unlock some as-yet unrealised potential or provide a solution to today’s problems.

SOTL_The Modern House_14

Over the decades, we have conserved and restored many of Scotland’s finest period properties and buildings, bringing them new life and helping to secure their future. These include castles, stately homes, churches and even a 19th-century lighthouse at the southernmost point of mainland Shetland.

Our projects have won several awards, competitions and commendations, including the Chairman’s Award for Architecture at the Scottish Design Awards 2020 for Kyle House and The Sunday Times British Homes Award for Restoration 2016 for the Grade A-Listed Lamb’s House. GRAS was also awarded the Grand Prix at the Scottish Design Awards 2017 for its work on Craft Scotland & Emergents at London Design Fair.

Studio_GRAS_HighRes-00101

Our team shares a deep commitment and passion for their work nurtured through active learning, discussion, and debate.

With a strong focus on open-minded collaboration to drive new ways of thinking, every project begins with a close working relationship with our clients, taking time for rich, explorative dialogue to understand and define their values to help guide good decision making. This collaborative approach extends across the project design team, ensuring those values are clearly communicated, understood, and followed in every aspect of the work.

A strong relationship between contractor and architect can unlock enormous value for the project and client, as the unparalleled experience of expert craftsmen can inform details, specification and project planning.

Practice

Meet the team

View (→)

Awards & Commendations

  • 2022
    House & Garden
    Top 100
  • 2022
    Dezeen Awards
    Longlisted
  • 2022
    The Herald Property Awards
    Finalist
  • 2022
    Scottish Design Awards
    Winner
  • 2022
    Scottish Design Awards
    Commended Finalist
  • 2022
    Scottish Design Awards
    Commended Finalist
  • 2022
    AJ Retrofit Awards
    Finalist
  • 2021
    RIBA House of the Year Award
    Longlisted
  • 2021
    RIAS Awards
    Winner
  • 2021
    EAA Awards
    Commended Finalist
  • 2021
    Country Life
    Top 100
  • 2020
    Scottish Design Awards
    Chairman’s Award
  • 2020
    RIAS Awards
    Finalist
  • 2020
    Country Life
    Top 100
  • 2019
    Civic Trust Award
    Winner
  • 2019
    Creative Edinburgh Awards
    Winner
  • 2019
    World Architectural Festival
    Finalist
  • 2018
    Scottish Design Awards
    Commended Finalist
  • 2017
    Scottish Design Awards
    Grand Prix Winner

Selected Press

  • Architectural Journal
    2022
  • The Modern House
    2021
  • The Modern House Magazine
    2021
  • House & Garden
    2020
  • Dezeen
    2018