Winter Architects

'Wa' was founded by Jake Winter in 2019. The practice has gained a reputation for its housing, cultural, educational and mixed-use projects. Working at a range of scales, they commit to each project as an investigator, aiming to uncover and reveal the ideal and unique hidden solution which each individual context hides. They immediately invite the client into the folds of the design team and embark on upskilling and training them to lead and make pragmatic decisions throughout the project's conception. This ensures that every project is not only individual but also the correct beautiful resolution required of the client and the site. Wa's work is the summation of strong relationships and collaborations with engineers, horticulturalists and artists. Research and teaching tightly frames the work in the studio. Jake Winter is a visiting critic at Oxford Brookes and Birmingham University, where his expertise lie in the spatial politics of informal settlements. It is a testament to the skill at Wa that many of their clients return and go on to build bigger and larger projects as they develop and grow their skill set and portfolios. Wa's experience allows them to assist clients in avoiding many of the common mistakes during construction and also provides a pragmatism that allows project issues to be solved efficiently, cost effectively and quickly. The project team have a range of experience, gained at a plethora of RIBA award winning practices working at numerous scales. Work by the directors has been published in academic journals and been shortlisted for World Architecture awards.