What we do
Konishi Gaffney are a leading Scottish architecture practice known for creating award-winning and impactful buildings. We work with clients and sector experts – and with artists and makers - on innovative projects encompassing architecture, landscape, people and art. Drawing upon more than thirty years of experience working in the UK, Europe and Japan, we deliver cost-effective, sustainable architecture that balances rigour with invention and flair.

How we do it
We love how things are made and learning something new with each commission. And we think of context - the physical, cultural and social environment in which each project sits – as a unique source of design inspiration. Our goal is simple: to make buildings and places that enrich all of our lives.

We focus on movement and function, on light and the position of the sun; on materials and the way they make us feel - and the connections between inside and out. We delight in construction detail and careful project management, and we love practical, natural and sustainable materials and collaborative friendly teams.

Recognition
Our work is widely recognized for its quality, featuring in publications such as the AJ, Dezeen, RIBA Journal, and DETAIL. Konishi Gaffney have received all of Scotland’s major architecture prizes, including a Saltire Housing Award, a RIAS Award, and the Grand Prix at the Scottish Design Awards. We have been twice shortlisted for the RIAS Doolan Prize, awarded for the best building in Scotland.

Kieran Gaffney FRSA
Design Director

During the 1980s and ‘90s Kieran studied at the University of Strathclyde (winning the school design prize in 1992) and the Bartlett School of Architecture and worked in Berlin, Tokyo and London - where he helped to establish Heatherwick Studio – before returning to Scotland in 2009 to launch Konishi Gaffney.

Kieran has long enjoyed an international outlook. Born in Zambia and raised in the Scottish new town of Livingston, Kieran studied in Firenze (under the ERASMUS programme) in his third year at Strathclyde and worked in the US & Zimbabwe, before his postgraduate studies.

Kieran is a regular guest critic at the Universities of Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Aberdeen and has lectured at universities in Brighton, London and Stuttgart and at all of the Scottish universities. He writes regularly for the architectural press and speaks about architecture and urban design matters in the national media.

Kieran is an ARB-registered architect and Fellow of the RSA and has served as a trustee for RIAS, Art in Healthcare and EAA.