To celebrate its ten year anniversary, Georgina Wilson’s Double Bay studio is shaking things up. Formerly Georgina Wilson Architects, the studio has rebranded to Georgina Wilson Associates – signalling new appointments and a reinvigorated appearance.

The rebrand is manifold in purpose. “Primarily, I just really wanted to acknowledge and celebrate the evolving nature of the way that we work,” says Wilson.

Peter Smith who has been with GWA for 11 years, and Jade Young who has been there for 9, were both promoted to associates, recognising their commitment to the studio and the strengths they bring to the practice.

Smith, who is Wilson’s brother, hones his passion for technology to bring design representations to life in 3D. The studio’s focus on technology has driven a lot of its success through the pandemic, says Wilson. Virtual reality in particular “has been absolutely critical in terms of the way we approach our design process,” she says.

The firm creates highly realistic three-dimensional visualisations, which when paired with the use of virtual reality goggles, allows clients to walk through the space. “Over COVID, it’s just put us right at the forefront,” says Wilson.

“It really helped us to be so much more thorough because we’ve already seen all the awkward junctions and all of the detail to such a degree. By the time it’s built, it’s just a far more complete and resolved equation,” says Wilson.

“The clients really appreciate it too, because right from the start they can. Even if they can’t read plans or things like that they really understand the model,” she adds.

As an accomplished senior architect with an exemplary 20 years in the industry under her belt, Young contributes a significant depth of experience to the practice.

While it acts to acknowledge Wilson’s staff, the rebrand also signals a move into bigger things, as the business begins to take on larger projects with a more holistic interior design and architecture approach.

“What we want to do is offer holistic solutions for our clients. So that has kind of necessitated getting on board staff within the practise that have different skills, be that interior design or computer rendering applications,” says Wilson.

Wilson’s approach to design has seen her firm recognised in national awards programs. Significantly, GWA’s Darwin Innovation Hub was awarded a Northern Territory AIA Architecture Award.

GWA started out in the healthcare field designing award-winning medical centres, yet since Covid began, Wilson noticed a lot more of her clients becoming residential and moving from renovations into entire new builds.

“The whole COVID experience has been very interesting as well because It’s really challenged my preconceptions about who we can work with though,” says Wilson. “We’ve really noticed an uptick in the amount of inquiries from across Australia.”

Currently, GWA is working on a range of residential projects through Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs and further north towards Freshwater and Willoughby. 

Georgina Wilson Associates
georginawilsonassociates.com

Portrait of Georgina Wilson by Anson Smart.