GRAS

GRAS (Groves-Raines Architects Studios) is a second-generation architecture, conservation and design practice based in Edinburgh. Our diverse team of over forty includes architects, researchers, curators, designers, makers, conservationists and problem solvers. We work at the intersection of conservation, contemporary design, craft and material research, creating and conserving places and objects with care and precision. Our approach is guided by heritage, sustainability and innovation, and considers physical, emotional, cultural, social and environmental impact. This past year, we delivered a broad and thoughtful range of work that reflects these values. We conserved Preston Tower, Doocot and Garden, a Scheduled Ancient Monument in Prestonpans, returning it to the community as a civic resource. At Kinloch Lodge, we worked with Wildland to reimagine a Victorian sporting estate in Sutherland. We also helped preserve Burr’s Store in Tongue, reversing plans for its demolition and restoring its function as a vital community hub. In Fife, we consolidated the historic West Wemyss Tolbooth, one of Scotland’s last, and in Leith, we sensitively refurbished the A-listed interiors of St Ninian’s Manse to recover its lost domestic character. Through Talks at the Lane events programme hosted at Custom Lane in Leith, we support cross-disciplinary dialogue and public engagement across art, design and architecture. Now entering its third season, the series strengthens Scotland’s cultural and creative ecologies. We also launched The Gathering Hand, a growing collection of furniture and objects made in collaboration with craftspeople and artists. Drawing on five decades of hands-on experience, the collection reflects our commitment to material exploration and interdisciplinary design. It celebrates the innate human drive to make and allows us to prototype new modes of design and production. Each object, crafted with stonemasons, carpenters, glassblowers and papermakers, expresses the values of heritage and innovation that drive our practice. Our work expands beyond buildings, into shaping spaces and objects that reflect shared memory, connection and inspire care. Living in an age of environmental crisis, our actions can have significantly positive or negative effects. At a time when almost everything is deemed disposable, we seek to create and conserve unique, emotionally enriching, functional buildings, objects and tools that will be loved and cherished. In turn, we can hope that they will be cared for, repaired, and adaptively re-used by multiple generations to come.