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Heart and home: Musson Brown Architects

Musson Brown Architects
www.mussonbrown.co.uk
Instagram: mussonbrownarchitects

Words by Sian Anderson
Photography by Mike Sreenan

For George Musson and Victoria Brown, co-founders of Musson Brown Architects, the best projects aren’t defined by budgets or accolades, but by the people behind them. Here, as the firm marks five years in business, the husband-and-wife team speak to Sian Anderson, reflecting on trust, growth and building a practice founded on human relationships.

The projects George Musson and Victoria Brown remember most aren’t necessarily the grandest ones. Nor are they always the most architecturally ambitious.

Instead, one of the first stories the founders of Musson Brown Architects tell is about two childhood sweethearts who spent years admiring the same house in the North East and dreaming of making it their own.

Years later, when the property came onto the market, they knocked on the door, agreed a price and began a journey that would turn into a Jesmond-based practice.

That journey is about a house, but it is also about people, which perhaps explains everything you need to know about Musson Brown Architects.

Five years after launching the practice, that distinction remains central to everything George and Victoria do.

Indeed, their website’s mantra is, ‘we believe good work comes from being good to work with’.

Throughout our conversation marking the practice’s fifth anniversary, one theme surfaces time and again: architecture begins and ends with people.

George says: “We’re not very architect-y architects.

“We like the more human side of it.”

Victoria adds: “That’s what makes it rewarding for us.

“It’s more about the people that are going to live there than the building itself.”

The approach has seen Musson Brown work on everything from family homes and period renovations to school conversions, commercial developments and award-winning coastal properties.

Yet despite the variety of projects, George and Victoria always return to the same starting point: understanding the people who will ultimately use the space.

Victoria says: “A really lovely project is one that delivers the brief exactly as the client needs and wants, and that they’re really happy at the end.”

The practice was born from a moment of change.

In 2020, as George’s previous firm underwent a period of transition and the world grappled with the uncertainty of the pandemic, the couple saw an opportunity to create something of their own.

Launching an architectural practice as the world came to a standstill might not have seemed the most obvious move, but for George and Victoria it offered the chance to build a business around the values that mattered most to them, while retaining the team they had worked alongside for years.

Five years on, that leap of faith has evolved into an award-winning practice working across residential and commercial sectors, yet the principles underpinning it remain remarkably unchanged.

Perhaps that philosophy is one reason they have found such a natural home in the North East.

The couple attended Newcastle University, live in Gosforth and run their practice from Jesmond’s Clayton Road.

But neither are born-and-bred northerners.

Indeed, in the early days of their relationship, the plan was never to stay long-term.

George says: “We bought a flat and thought we’d move on, but now it feels like we’re quite firmly rooted here.

“As a city, Newcastle feels very comfortable, almost like a village.

“You bump into the same faces.”

Victoria is quick to agree, pointing to the city’s unique layout and accessibility.

She adds: “It’s quite unusual for the suburbs to be so tight to the city, to wander in and have everything on your doorstep.”

Their affection for the region is reflected in the projects they choose to work on.

Many are embedded in the communities they now call home.

We meet at Victorian Towers, in Gosforth, a landmark residential project that has journeyed alongside the practice for five years and is finally nearing completion, with the building’s new owners expected to move in next autumn.