Edinburgh planning and design consultancy Barton Willmore has bolstered its architecture team with nine new recruits as it continues with ambitious growth plans in Scotland.

The professional services firm, which spans all aspects of planning, master planning and design, is investing in its architecture division following a number of high profile contract wins.

The team has grown considerably on the back of the Scottish Government’s commitment to stimulate affordable housing across the country.

George Street-based Barton Willmore is helping to promote the long-term sustainability of new communities with the Edinburgh & Fife Affordable Housing Programmes. This will see Robertson Partnership Homes deliver affordable housing on 19 different sites to the Pennywell and Muirhouse regeneration developments by Urban Union and Robertson Group, delivering over 800 new homes and a new mixed use neighbourhood town centre.

Head of Barton Willmore’s architecture team in Scotland, Stuart Bishop, said: “Affordable housing has become a major part of our business over the last five years. In addition, we have seen the team secure commissions in the student residential, hotel, education and commercial sectors. Our multi-disciplinary service helps our clients do everything from large-scale inner-city regeneration to urban extensions and the creation of new communities.

“Increasing our headcount by 40%, specifically investing in highly skilled, ambitious architects as well as a new urban designer, demonstrates our commitment to our clients and to growing our expertise across sectors. I’m extremely proud of our talented hard-working team in Edinburgh and the success we have seen in recent years.”

Barton Willmore has delivered design and town planning services across a number of sectors throughout Scotland including retail, hotel, waste and recycling, port redevelopment and movie studio space.

The new recruits include Kevin McAvinchey, senior architect; Erin McGuire, architectural designer; Lewis MacDonald & Anita Bielatowicz, architectural technicians; Ewa Toroj, senior landscape architect and Elliot Ewing, Lauren McNamara and Christina Mitratza, who join the company as architectural assistants.

In his first role since graduating from university, Tom Pinder, 23, has joined the expanding urban design and master planning team as an urban design assistant, also based in the Edinburgh office.

Barton Willmore’s Edinburgh partner, Stephen Tucker, said: “The investment in new recruits comes on the back of six years of significant growth for our Scottish-based operation. We have won new projects that have allowed us to showcase our expertise across not just our traditional planning and masterplanning offering but also architecture, landscape planning and design.

“I am extremely proud of our multi-disciplinary team and the work they do for our clients. Latterly, we’ve experienced fantastic growth on the back of the Scottish Government’s support for affordable homes. In that time our headcount has grown from 12 members of staff to 30 over the last four years. I can only thank our clients and the fantastic individuals we work with in those organisations for their continued support.

“Despite this growth our strategy remains the same - to deliver the best quality work for our clients, and to do that we need to recruit the best staff by tapping into the fantastic pool of talent we have available on our doorstep in Scotland.”