Clare Wright: ‘We want to create buildings our descendants will thank us for’

Speaking to representatives of the largest practices in the UK, she reflected on her practice’s passion for working with historic buildings and in sensitive settings, and its approach to both its projects and how it runs its office.

‘We only have one life. I don’t want to do anything that I’m not proud of,’ she said, recalling how fellow practice founder – and husband - Sandy Wright once said ‘he’d rather stack shelves in Sainsbury’s’ than take on one particular project that he knew would be inappropriate, ‘and I thought, he’s right’.

Another criteria, she said, was working with a client ‘that cares’; one that the practice can work with in common purpose. In one current project, client St Edmund Hall in Oxford asked Wright & Wright to be as sustainable as possible in every respect when designing new and retrofit accommodation and social spaces for students, leading it to work closely with the engineers to minimise the use of concrete.

Wright & Wright’s first project was the Women’s Library, completed in 2000 in London’s Whitechapel, which embodied many of the themes that run through its subsequent work, including inserting new into old and using heavyweight and thick-skinned construction for energy efficiency and sustainability.

‘We like to do thick-skinned buildings and we have to be fairly thick-skinned to rub along together as partners in life and work, and probably we have to be thick skinned to have the determination to see things through,’ she said.

Another theme is close attention to the way the practice works with the existing context and how it stitches its new work into the surroundings. Not only is working with the threads of what’s already there more sustainable, she argued, it makes for a richer cityscape by not sweeping away the past.

‘The combination of refurbished historic building and new buildings is, I think, very vibrant and alive. We all have something to contribute that’s new, but I think we are part of a human continuum – we don’t just come from nowhere. And of course it’s also more sustainable,’ she said.

Wright presented the practice’s work in three highly sensitive contexts. At Lambeth Palace, the practice created a £23.5 million library and archive in the grounds, conceived as an ‘occupied wall’ that creates a buffer for the garden while providing a tower with a presence befitting the stature of the project.

Source:Hufton + Crow

At St John’s College, Oxford, the practice’s net zero carbon Study Centre solved the problem of how to intervene in the historic quadrangle setting – something the college had been grappling with for 50 years. At the Museum of the Home in London, Wright & Wright found a way to create the new space required largely within the existing building and adjacent former pub, thus avoiding the need for larger new build.

As well as the projects, Wright talked about her difficulties of securing work at architectural practices early in her career after having a baby. This led to her working instead for housing association Circle Housing. She initially worried that this would be the end of her architectural career but it turned out to be ‘one of the best decisions of my life’, with her setting up an in-house design team and being sent on management courses. Circle was even supportive when she left to set up Wright & Wright – and they said she could come back if it didn’t work out.

Her experiences have informed the way Wright & Wright runs its practice, which has a very low staff turnover.

Don’t worry, your life’s not over at 30

'Because of my experiences, we’re quite flexible in terms of how people want to work. What matters most in your family is you, your family, your health.  If your mother is sick, go and see her – the competition actually doesn’t matter that much.'

Asked what advice she’d give her younger self when juggling a young family and work now, she said: ‘It’ll be fine. Don’t worry, your life’s not over at 30!’

The AJ100 Club event, hosted by AJ editor Emily Booth at the Lighterman restaurant, was supported by headline sponsor Roca and programme sponsors Lapitec and Schlüter-Systems.