Adam Richards Architects is an award-winning architectural practice founded in 2000. Based in West Sussex, ARA has developed a reputation for a wide range of arts, cultural, heritage, education and residential projects.

From its inception, ARA’s approach has been to remodel the deeper cultural themes within its projects into highly original critical, spatial, social and structural propositions. 

Their clients often have unique objects and unusual sites. They work collaboratively with them to find inspiring, inventive and affordable ways of making their environment better. Many of their projects are in historic settings, and they have a talent for understanding what makes such places special — and complementing and enhancing them through the projects they design.

Adam Richards Architects is committed to pursuing sustainable design solutions: they start each project with an audit of the sustainable options, and they design projects which demand less energy in their construction and use, deploying materials which required less energy to make.

They believe that architecture is an art and a craft, and that buildings should be of their time, but rooted in their place. They design buildings for the long term, with an emphasis on quality. Their projects often have a strong narrative basis: they tell stories in their projects by drawing on a knowledge of social and cultural history, myth and geographic and symbolic understanding. Their buildings are meaningful, and this is understood at an emotional level by the people that experience them.

We often provide integrated Planning and Design Support for Country Estates. You can find more about our collaboration here, and you can explore ARA’s full portfolio here.