GRAS Website

GRAS is an award-winning Edinburgh-based architecture and design practice with a reputation for producing dynamic, timeless and enduring projects. The company was formed in 2020 from the consolidation of two successful, family-run practices, Groves-Raines Architects and Groves-Raines Architects Studios. The GRAS website is an elegant and engaging portal that provides a curated overview of the company’s work and values as it transitions into a new phase.

Working in collaboration with Scottish graphic designer, Kurt Green (Human Resources), GRAS devised a concept for the new site that invites users to explore the studio’s completed work along with key works in progress. Recognising the importance of the website as a likely first impression for prospective clients and collaborators, the design presents the projects in a clear and precise manner, with an emphasis on beautiful imagery and straightforward navigation.

The website was designed to communicate the variety of GRAS’s work, which is diverse in scale and typology. A simple grid creates an invisible structure that allows content to be arranged in a versatile yet consistent format. Projects displayed on the homepage demonstrate the breadth of the practice’s output, ranging from the restoration of a scheduled monument to details from a modern retail showroom and visualisations of a proposed high-end residential project. Plenty of white space – or in this case, black space – allows each project to stand alone, while bold titles appear when the user hovers over an image.

A minimal menu directs users towards a presentation of Selected Work and a Project Index, along with information about the Practice and Team. The Project Index is an essential tool that clearly and concisely catalogues the company’s many projects dating back as far as 1972. This comprehensive list does not overwhelm the user with unnecessary information, but rather allows them to expand the view of each project before clicking through for more detail or quickly returning to the index.

The website’s design reflects GRAS’s passion for user-centred solutions that are reduced to their essence and elevated by precise details. The font used across the site is Antarctica, which was chosen for its timeless clarity, precision and simplicity. Wordpress was chosen as the content management system, allowing the design to be fully customised while ensuring GRAS’s employees can regularly update the website without requiring external tech support.

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