We’re a forward-thinking architecture and design team, creating places people love through thoughtful and imaginative practice.
For a small firm we punch above our weight at Gagarin, working all around the north and across heritage, architecture, sustainability, infrastructure and interior design. Our clients include charitable, grassroots and public-sector organisations together with developers and homeowners, and we’re as comfortable leading on complex multi-agency projects as we are extending a farmhouse kitchen.
It’s not so much a particular type or scale of project that unites our commissions. Instead, our practice is characterised by bold creativity, close collaboration and our knack for making the journey smooth and – dare we say it – even enjoyable for clients. We’re a conscientious bunch too, so we work ethically and responsibly, always for the good of those communities we serve.
We treat every new brief as a golden opportunity to bring design ambition to the everyday. A chance to improve and enrich people’s lives by enhancing the spaces they occupy.
Whether you’re a grassroots art group, commercial developer or just want a townhouse makeover – we approach every project with the same care and professionalism our reputation’s been built on. For us, the overall experience is as important as our design work itself, and you’ll see this in the way we engage with clients, stakeholders and communities, or how we communicate and collaborate with contractors.
We bring design ambition to every project too, always looking for ways to use creativity and ingenuity to deliver meaningful added value for our clients. Our work also reflects the wonderful diversity of regional contexts, carefully balancing appeal and distinctiveness with the need for places that are sensitively executed, measurably sustainable and entirely suitable for all those who use them.
In short, our approach is all about championing high quality spaces people want to live in, work in or visit, using the power of placemaking to elevate the everyday.
If we do have an area of particular interest, it’s in the creative reuse of existing buildings, often for renewal or regeneration.
As a multi-disciplinary team who love a good challenge, we’ve mastered the art of reconciling the competing demands of conservation, adaptation and sympathetic new design within sensitive or historic settings. We’re especially interested in the context of place and the stories that buildings and communities hold. Design with real relevance, by and for humans.
At our helm are Gayle Appleyard and Steve Gittner, partners in life and business.
Between them they bring more than 60 years’ creative and commercial expertise to our studio, combining their Yorkshire roots, values and approach with rite-of-passage London experience. They’re passionate about the north, and about proving through practice their firm belief that regional creativity can rival the capital’s.
For Gayle and Steve, that championing of northern creativity also extends to its wider cultural landscape, especially its music. From the mesmeric bleeps of Voodoo Ray to the iconic hits of New Order, the soundtrack to our founders’ lives hasn’t just shaped who they are – it also mirrors the way Gayle and Steve work creatively within contextual constraints. Ask them about it – they’d love to tell you more.
As for why Gagarin? It was originally meant as a whimsical nod to the bold ambition and leap of faith of our now legendary namesake. A healthy sense of whimsy still thrives here today, but that doesn’t mean we’re not seriously serious about the business of wowing our clients.
