Scottish Modern : Brown & Brown

Scottish Modern showcases homes created by award-winning architecture studio Brown & Brown and explores the studio’s approach to placing modern buildings within sensitive Scottish landscapes. Brown & Brown buildings are understated yet contemporary, conceived around notions of home, sanctuary and environmental connection.

Founded in 2010 by Andrew & Kate Brown, Brown & Brown architecture studio is based in Aberdeenshire, northeast Scotland, working in Scotland, across the UK and beyond. The practice has crafted a design philosophy that balances the creation of bold yet contextual forms within particular landscapes, with houses that are unique to their occupants and inspire delight and an unwavering sense of home.

Brown & Brown works collaboratively, partnering with its clients to create homes designed around how the occupants want to live their lives, whether in the Scottish Highlands or the Italian Riviera. The studio’s work centres on creating a sense of repose from everyday life, a stillness and timelessness. Its architecture draws from, but is not beholden to, the historic, considering origins and the vernacular not as ends in themselves but as a means of continuity.

After working worked for some of the country’s leading architectural practices, Andrew Brown co-founded Brown & Brown in 2010. Numerous architectural awards include Scottish Design Awards Residential Award for Tidal House in 2024, and for Architecture Practice of the Year 2022, while Lower Tullochgrue was shortlisted for House of the Year for The Architects’ Journal Manser Medal 2021. Andrew has taught at universities across the UK and is a member of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. Originally from Glasgow, he lives in rural Aberdeenshire, the landscape of which, from the North Sea coast to the Cairngorms, is a driver in his work. Andrew’s interests range from mid-century Scandinavian architecture and design to 20th-century Scottish literature. He draws further inspiration from product design, typography and as an aspiring photographer. Andrew is an alumnus of the University of Strathclyde and Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg.

As a co-founder of Brown & Brown, Kate previously worked in some of the UK’s most prestigious architectural practices. She is at the heart of Brown & Brown and organises the studio with meticulous precision. The practice’s work has received numerous architectural awards both in the UK and further afield, and has been published internationally including in The New York Times and Wallpaper*. Kate relocated to Scotland from her native Yorkshire in 2003. She combines her interests in modernism and traditional design to create buildings that are of their time but also call on the lessons of the past. She further combines a talent for painting and drawing with an interest in conservation, architectural theory and Scandinavian design, a blend that is apparent in the work of the practice. An alumnus of the Glasgow School of Art, Kate completed a master’s degree in planning and urban conservation at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Prior to joining Brown & Brown, Nielsen worked within the senior leadership of the global practice CF Møller, where numerous awards included the Civic Trust Award and National Housing Awards, both 2017. He has worked in master planning, residential, commercial and cultural sectors for projects of strategic importance in the UK, including the Athlete’s Village, London Olympics 2012 and the Sammy Ofer Wing for the National Maritime Museum, London, in 2011. Nielsen has taught at universities such as IE University School of Architecture and Design, Madrid and Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen and lectured at events including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) talks. Nielsen holds a master’s degree in architecture from the Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark and has accreditation from the Danish Architects’ Association, the UK Architects Registration Board (ARB) and the RIBA.

An architect, artist and educator, Alan Dunlop’s multiple visiting professorships include the Distinguished Victor L Regnier Visiting Chair in Architecture at Kansas State University, the Mahlum Endowed Lecturer at the University of Washington, the Chair of Contemporary Architecture Practice and visiting professor at the University of Liverpool. In practice, Dunlop was awarded more than 50 national and international awards, including Europa Nostra, Royal Institute of British Architects Awards, Grand Prix for Architecture and two International Architecture Awards from the Chicago Athenaeum. His portfolio of award-winning buildings includes Hazelwood School, an internationally acclaimed campus for children and young people with special needs, listed as one of the top five schools of the 21st century by Architectural Record and the RIBA. Dunlop is a fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and an alumnus of the Glasgow School of Art.