Ritchie Wrigley Architects is an RIBA Chartered practice, based in London. It was established in 2023 by Joe Wrigley and Michael Ritchie, after 15 years of working together.

Our practice works in many and varied sectors, including for charities, schools, restaurants, and private housing. It incorporates both new developments and extensive refurbishments of existing buildings, often in sensitive landscapes and heritage settings. Creatively adapting and sustainably retrofitting historic buildings has become one of our strengths.

Common to all our projects is a deep interest in the ways building work, how they function for the range of users that will occupy the buildings and how we can enhance this experience in a joyful, thoughtful and creative way.

We strive to set up a meaningful dialogue with our clients from the outset so we can listen to and understand the drivers behind a commission. Our designs are tailored precisely to the brief that emerges, rather than any pre-existing architectural concept or ‘house style’. We explore, elaborate, and communicate them using physical and virtual models, 3D sketches and diagrams.

We are interested in a ‘touch the ground lightly’ approach where the delivery of natural light and ventilation, combined with a connection to place, context and nature is maximised. In so doing we seek to reduce a building’s embodied and lifetime energy use. Above all we are pre-occupied with how the practice of Architecture can be used to deliver social and environmental benefits to all.

After graduating from Cambridge University in 1999, Joe started his professional career at David Cook Associates, where he worked on a nursery school for Dulwich College and a variety of private houses and educational projects. He remained a key part of this practice whilst finishing his studies. He joined MJP Architects in 2002, gaining experience at all scales of architectural design, from masterplanning universities to the detailed fabrication of buildings.

After graduating in 2000, Michael spent eight years working with Professor Alan Short on a series of innovative low-energy sustainable buildings including the re-purposing of a Civic Hall to create a 500 seat theatre; a faculty building and library for the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL; an Art and Design Centre for Berkhamsted Collegiate School; and an Exhibition Centre for a housing developer in Beijing, before joining MJP Architects in 2008.

Since 2008 Joe and Michael have been working together leading projects including an office building and hospitality venue in the heart of St. James’s, London, for Berry Bros & Rudd; a student residence and conference centre for the University of Roehampton; the refurbishment of a Grade II Georgian House to create a family office; a mixed commercial, retail and housing project in the heart of the historic centre of Riga, Latvia; a transformation of a 1970’s Student Union for the University of Warwick; affordable housing projects for young people in London for the LHA; university masterplans; and a series of hospitality spaces in central London.

Michael is the current author of the ‘Housing for Students and Single People’ chapter in the Metric Handbook, Planning and Design data, is a member of the University Design Forum and has previously taught at the University of Brighton as a visiting lecturer.

Joe is an RIBA registered Conservation Architect and has previously lectured on Professional Practice at the University of Cambridge.