Year in Review 2025

As a new year approaches, we’re taking a moment to appreciate the highlights of 2025. Projects completed or underway, awards won and celebrations shared with friends and colleagues.

This summer friends from the property sector joined us to celebrate ten years of our Glasgow studio. It was a great opportunity to reflect on a decade of local projects and achievements with directors Gillian Stewart and Gordon Yeaman.

For the first time interior design students had the opportunity to showcase their work at a Glasgow based exhibition. Organised by MLA, and supported by our industry sponsors, the two day event was an inspirational exhibition of student’s work from across the country.

MLA joined PMP, Robertson Group, Brodies, Drum Property, Civic, Saffery and oobe to lead a campaign to represent Scotland at this important global event. The initiative has been gaining interest across the country with more parties now signed up to join the group in March 2026.

Social mobility charity Career Ready supports young people across the UK with work experience and mentorship in their chosen profession. MLA joined the scheme in 2025 and are now supporting two Glasgow based young people on their career journey.

Some notable achievements to celebrate for our team: –

Tom Wood, architect, was a winner of this year’s Architectural Drawing Prize and travelled to Miami to see his work exhibited at the World Architecture Festival.

Helen Mackenzie, interior designer at MLA, was named in the prestigious Mix Interiors 30 under 30

And our colleague, Robert Marr celebrated 50 years at MLA! Quite an achievement.

Some of the key projects we’ve been working on this year: –

• Redevelopment of Edinburgh’s 30 Semple Street with the project achieving BREEAM Outstanding.
• 24 St Andrew Square was given a high spec makeover to upgrade to class A office space and achieve BREEAM Excellent.
• Work has begun to rejuvenate Port Hamilton in Edinburgh prioritising design quality and sustainability to create an exceptional working environment.
• The empty buildings at 20 Brandon Street have been transformed to create an exceptional destination workplace for our financial services client.
• Fern House is phase one of the redevelopment of Edinburgh’s former Tynecastle High School to create student accommodation. Scheduled for summer 2026,  but it has completed ahead of schedule for summer 2025.
• A stunning development in Edinburgh’s new town ‘Village View’ was completed with the restoration of Douglas House and the addition of new luxury apartments.
• Work has begun at Shore Station on the adaptive re-use and refurbishment of rare historic buildings to transform the site into a mixed-use development.
• Haymarket Yards purpose-built student accommodation has completed ready for occupation by students in January.

2025 has been an award-winning year for MLA: –

Stirling Architecture Society      Winner – Regeneration, Rosebank Distillery

Herald Property Award Winner – Best Regeneration Project (Commercial),  The Resident Edinburgh

Scottish Homes Award Winner – Renovation of the Year, Village View

BCO CX Award Highly Commended,  OVO Energy

Scottish Design Award Winner – Retrofit, The Resident Edinburgh

Scottish Design Award Winner – Commercial/Office/Hotel Building, Rosebank Distillery

BCO Regional Awards Scotland Winner – Fit-out of Workplace, OVO Energy

RIAS Awards Winner – RIAS Award + Architectural Excellence, Rosebank Distillery

Scottish Property Awards Winner – Architectural Excellence (Commercial), Rosebank Distillery

Thank you to all our partners and friends in the property industry who have helped us along the way. We wish you all a very merry Christmas.