AJ Corus 40 Under 40

6A Architects, Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald

6A Architects
6A was founded by Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald in 2001 after meeting as students at the Royal College of Art in London in 1995.

The practice produces work on a variety of scales, from product and exhibition design to large-scale housing developments. Its work for oki-ni on Savile Row has been recognised as a significant and innovative development in retail design. Current projects include a mixed use development in Croatia, the conversion and extension of a former military building into eight contemporary houses in Fife, a Summer Pavilion for the Architecture Foundation London and a contemporary art gallery, also in London.  6A Architects has recently won an international design competition for a social housing project in France organised by Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and the French Ministry of Culture

Adam Richards, 2000

Adam Richards

Adam Richards founded his London-based practice in 2000, after working for Niall McLaughlin, MacCormac Jamieson Prichard, and O’Donnell + Tuomey in Dublin.

To date the practice has built a modern extension to a listed manor house, collaborated with an artist to design a miniature fantasy chapel, exhibited at the Royal Academy, modestly proposed a complete re-organisation of London and designed fifty shops. Current projects include a stone house perched on a Portuguese mountainside, the complete refurbishment of a large flat in Lubetkin’s Highpoint 1, and an electronic rooftop windbreak responsive to cosmic radiation for a priest in central London. After a degree in International Relations & Politics, Adam Richards studied architecture at Cambridge and the University of North London. He has taught architecture at Kingston University and the University of North London.

AdjayeAssociates, David Adjaye

AdjayeAssociates

A graduate of the Royal College of Art, David Adjaye started a small practice in 1994, and quickly established a reputation for reconstructing cafes, bars and private homes. In 2000 he reformed his studio as AdjayeAssociates with 8 employees – the firm has now expanded to 35.

In 2001, Adjaye won the high-profile Idea Store competition to design two new-build libraries in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and was awarded the commission to design the Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham which realises the dream of the late MP and civil rights leader Bernie Grant. The office is currently working on the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, a prototype house in Nanjing, China, an arts building for the London-based organisations inIVA/Autograph and the new home for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver.

Amin Taha Architects, 2001

Amin Taha Architects
Amin Taha Architects was formed in 2001 after winning competitions for urban regeneration in Manchester and a small theatre and arts centre in East London. Until recently it has had just two principles, the Anglo-Iraqi-Sudanese Amin Taha and Sarah Griffiths, but has recently also appointed Richard Cheesman to the same position. Both Taha and Cheesman worked for Wilkinson Eyre, with Taha also spending time in the offices of Richard Murphy, Ric Mather, Lifschutz Davidson, and Zaha Hadid. Giffiths worked at Lifschutz Davidson and, before joining up with Taha, was an associate at McDowell and Benedetti.

Since it was established the practice has completed Gazzano House on Farringdon Road, the eye-catching Cor-Ten residential building next to the Guardian/Observer headquarters which was shortlisted for two awards, and has won a competition for a new family house on the Thames in Henley.

Tonkin Liu, Anna Liu and Mike Tonkin

Tonkin Liu

Anna Liu runs Tonkin Liu with Mike Tonkin.

Taking each new project as a blank canvas, the practice has developed an approach that finds solutions specific to person, place, and time. The practice’s portfolio of work includes a range of private projects, complemented by competition work at the civic scale. Completed projects in Europe and East Asia have been published around the world and have received a number of awards. The two partners combine design with research and teaching. Their book, Asking Looking Playing Making, published in 1999, sets out their design approach based on story telling, space, time and change.

AOC, 2003

AOC

AOC was established in 2003 by a group of London-based designers who ‘decided that they wanted to ask the same questions’.

Not exclusively concerned with architecture, they claim to be able to ‘design you a home, write you a book or build you a city. Or design you a book, build you a home and write you a city’.  Current projects include housing, live/work studios, schools, roofscapes, follies, urban board games and a book on pigeons. AOC was included in The Observer's ‘Best and Brightest 2005’. The practice won third place in the competition to design a new London home for the Architecture Foundation and was recently selected for the Elephant and Castle architects housing panel.

Birdi and Rutt, Seth Rutt and Harbinder Singh Birdi

Birdi and Rutt

Seth Rutt and Harbinder Singh Birdi run a team of ten architects in their capacity as associates at Hawkins\Brown. Rutt studied architecture at Leeds Metropolitan University and Singh Birdi studied at Manchester School of Architecture and spent time practicing in India before joining  Hawkins\Brown. Rutt worked on the Sheep Field Barn Gallery for the Henry Moore Foundation and later worked on further projects for the same client.

Harbinder is currently supervising the New Art Exchange project in Nottingham and a number of residential schemes in London and the North East. They are working together on the transformation of the Grade II* listed Park Hill flats in Sheffield, in association with Urban Splash. The Roald Dahl Museum and the New Art Exchange represent the latest in a series of arts buildings developed in association with practice director David Bickle where various themes of a crafted architecture are beginning to emerge.

Block Architecture, Graeme Williamson and Zoe Smith

Block Architecture

Block Architecture is a London based practice established in 1998 by Graeme Williamson and Zoe Smith. The practice works on a diverse range of projects including bars, restaurants, apartments, houses, shops, hair salons, galleries, and office space as well as arts and exhibition projects. Commissions for larger projects have led to a 70% increase in turnover over the last two years. The practice has worked in London, New York, Tokyo and Stockholm for clients including Modern Art Oxford, The V&A Museum, The British Council, The Institute of Contemporary Arts, Tomato, Virgin and fashion designer Hussein Chalayan.

Current projects include a £2M bar/restaurant, a £1M live/work development in Brighton and a £250,000 office refurbishment in London for the media company Glue. It has recently completed and contributed to an exhibition in Glasgow called 6000 Miles. The partners say that they are not interested in developing a ‘style’ but in ‘constantly renewing and challenging our understanding of architecture and its experiential qualities.  This is because we enjoy working on new problems which will challenge us’.

Burd Haward Architects, Buddy Haward and Catherine Burd

Burd Haward Architects

After studying together in the 1980s, Buddy Haward and Catherine Burd set up in practice together 10 years ago, working alongside Lucy Marston as directors of Burd Haward Marston Architects from 1998 – 2004.  They recently reformed as Burd Haward Architects, adapting their method of practice to accommodate life with their two young children and to pursue activities adjacent to the business of architecture – teaching, writing, building and travelling.  The projects shown here were completed by Burd Haward Marston Architects.

They have worked on a diverse range of project types – from public and private housing, schools and offices, to churches, a golf club and an art gallery.  The Brooke Coombes House won a number of awards, including an RIBA Award and the Manser Medal for Best One-Off House in 2002. The practice is currently working on several new houses for private clients, including a zero carbon emission home on a green-belt site in Buckinghamshire, and an eco-villa in the south of France.  They aim to make buildings that are technically inventive, socially generous and environmentally sustainable, with a clarity of idea and purpose legible in their layout, form and detail.

Buschow Henley, Gavin Hale-Brown

Buschow Henley

Gavin Hale-Brown and Simon Henley have been working together with fellow directors Ralph Buschow and Ken Rorrison since 1995 at London based architectural practice Buschow Henley. Hale Brown studied at the University of Liverpool and spent time working in Japan before becoming a director at Buschow Henley. Henley also went to Liverpool and went on to study at the University of Oregon, USA
in Eugene (1990-1991). Hale Brown and Henley have taught a variety of Universities both in the UK and abroad.

The practice has won two RIBA Awards, one for a residential project in Shepherdess Walk and one for offices for Talkback Productions, both in London. Other projects include Goole Arts and Civic Centre, Caldicott School and an xxx building in London’s Hoxton Square.

Buschow Henley has won a competition to regenerate 16 acres of the Chatham Royal Dockyards to create over 400 homes for Countryside Maritime and is working on a project to design a humane prison appropriate to the 21st century.

Brisac Gonzalez, Cécile Brisac and Edgar Gonzalez

Brisac Gonzalez

Cécile Brisac was born in Firminy, France. After studying at the AA she worked in France, the United States and Great Britain at the offices of Frank Hammountène, Ian Ritchie Architects, Mark Hampton and Kohn Pedersen Fox. She established Brisac Gonzalez with Edgar Gonzalez in 1999 after winning the international competition for the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The practice’s current projects include a multi-purpose hall in Aurillac, France and an invited competition for the National Academy of the Arts in Bergen, Norway. Recent invited projects include the competition for a cultural centre in Sainte-Maxime and the competition for the ‘Historial Charles de Gaulle’ at the Invalides in Paris. Brisac has been a guest juror at various schools in the UK including the Architectural Association and the University of East London, as well as in the United States. She lectures regularly in the UK, Scandinavia and France.

de Metz Forbes Knight, formerly de Metz Architects

de Metz Forbes Knight, formerly de Metz Architects

de Metz Forbes Knight (dMFK), formerly de Metz Architects (established in 1996), is a prolific, design led, London-based commercial practice. The three partners met whilst studying and worked at Moshe Safdie, Richard Rogers, and Lifschutz Davidson respectively.

Past projects include, an education centre at Tate Modern, Sardo Italian restaurnart in Primrose Hill, London, a media centre in Chiswick and our scheme for an Orthodox Synagogue in Golders Green, NW London. The projects are linked by a rigorously clear diagram, and astrong desire to create informal, fair and generous-feeling places. The work is also characterised by a conscious expression ofthe 'patina', whether within an existing building or in the generation of thefacade of a new building. The practice’s goal is ‘to create appropriate, timeless buildings that improve with age’.

DSDHA, Deborah Saunt

DSDHA

Established in 1998 DSDHA is headed by the founding partners Deborah Saunt and David Hills along with Claire McDonald who became the practice’s third director in 2004. 

DSDHA’s portfolio includes over twelve school and university buildings. The current workload extends from the redesign of Parliament Square, in collaboration with Foster and Partners, to a £27m new education campus in Surrey and a private residence on Kensington Palace Gardens. The practice has won three RIBA Awards and a British Construction Industry Award, as well as many design competitions including the CABE / IPPR Designs on Democracy Competition; The Peabody Trust Low Cost Housing and Artist Studios in Silvertown; the Channel 4 Castleford Project; and the DfES Neighbourhood Nurseries Competition for Hoyle Early Years Centre in Bury. Extensive teaching and research informs all of their work.

Fat, Sean Griffiths

Fat

Fat is a London based practice run by Sean Griffiths, Charles Holland and Sam Jacob. Established in 1995, it has developed a broad approach to architecture.

Early work included a series of seminal interior projects and art projects. These gave Fat an international reputation for innovative architectural thinking. Larger scale projects have given the office an opportunity to develop these ideas. The Blue House in east London has been described as ‘the most memorable new house in London’ since the 1980s. Current work includes a park and community centre in Hoogvliet, NL, an office building in Amersfoort, NL, a social housing scheme in Manchester, UK and an art school in Boxtel, NL.

Its directors contribute extensively to architectural debate. They have taught and lectured at universities in the UK, Europe and the US, and have contributed to numerous publications. Fat is committed to making architecture that engages with its social context. By connecting architecture to wider culture, Fat seek to make architecture that is progressive, radical and most of all, liked.

Francesco Draisci

Francesco Draisci

Born in Foggia, in the South of Italy, Francesco Draisci studied Architecture in Florence where he co-founded the experimental design group Zoom Ahead whose work was selected for the Biennale of young artists in Lisbon 1994. He spent four years with the Richard Rogers Partnership working on a variety of projects including the Skylight Building in Frankfurt, the Millennium Dome in Greenwich and Chiswick Park. He was design and art director for the London Designers Block at the Jam Factory in September 2001 and worked with Ron Arad Associates on the acclaimed Selfridges Christmas windows in the same year. Draisci currently works as an architect and installation artist. He recently exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the National Glass Centre in Sunderland and collaborated with Wilkinson Eyre on a project for the 9th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Gareth Hoskins Architects, 1998

Gareth Hoskins Architects Ltd

Gareth Hoskins set up Gareth Hoskins Architects, now Gareth Hoskins Architects Ltd, in 1998 after six years as an associate with Penoyre & Prasad Architects in London. Since then, the Glasgow-based practice has grown to over thirty strong. Key buildings include the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Interpretation Centre at The Lighthouse, Glasgow, Durham Light Infantry Museum & Art Centre and Hutcheson's Hall, (the headquarters for the National Trust for Scotland). The practice has won a number of high-profile competitions including the V&A and RIBA Architecture Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum (a Grade 1 listed building), the masterplan for the A-listed Royal Museum in Edinburgh and the visitor and interpretation centre for The National Trust for Scotland at Culloden Battlefield.

Community-based projects include the £6 million Easterhouse Arts Factory on the outskirts of Glasgow which was commended by the Scottish Arts Council as a model of accessibility and is due to be home to the National Theatre of Scotland and the Families' Reception Centre in Edinburgh. Gareth Hoskins Architects has also won the competition to design Scotland's second national children's hospice for the care and support of terminally ill children in the particularly sensitive environment of the National Park at Loch Lomond.

Hakes Associates, Julian and Cari-Jane Hakes

Hakes Associates

Julian and Cari-Jane Hakes began their working collaboration having won their first commission in 1995 aged 22. They set up their first design studio in a spare student room and fielded calls from their clients from a pay phone in the corridor. Whilst in their final term studying Architecture at Cambridge University, they entered and won first place in an open international RIBA design competition for 150 sustainable urban homes, prompting them to set up in architectural practice in 2000.Their first completed project, The Wycoller Visitors Centre, Lancashire, was won through an open RIBA competition in 2001 and received an RIBA award in 2002. Recent competition-winning projects include The Mobius Bridge in Bristol, The Bridge of Hope in Liverpool and a new 350 seat Chapel and Auditorium in London.

Hakes Associates collaborate with a number of leading engineering practices and are currently working on commissions for two 300m pedestrian and cycle bridges along the Charles River, Boston USA and two 500m long highway bridges in Al Khiran, Kuwait. Cari-Jane and Julian have taught and lectured at Cambridge University for five years and are visiting critics for a number of London Schools of architecture.

Ian McChesney Architects, 2000

Ian McChesney Architects

Ian McChesney graduated from the Royal College of Art before joining the practice of John McAslan + Partners where he later became an Associate.  This position provided significant experience working on projects such as the redevelopment of the Royal Academy of Music and new offices for International Art and Architecture Publisher Thames & Hudson. He went on to found his own practice, Ian McChesney Architects in 2000. It soon made its mark winning an international open competition to design a series of wind shelters for Blackpool’s South shore promenade.  The practice has recently won competitions to design a bandstand for the new Walkergate development in the city of Durham and a Pavilion for Avenham Park in Preston.  The practice is currently engaged on a project to create a day nursery and community building in South London. 

Mangera Yvars Architects, Ali Mangera and Yvars Bravo

Mangera Yvars Architects

London and Barcelona-based practice Mangera Yvars Architects (MYAA) was established by Ali Mangera and Yvars Bravo in 2001. Ali Mangera studied Structural and Environmental engineering completing a Masters degree at The University of Leeds, and The University of Pennsylvania State, USA in 1990. He studied architecture at The Architectural Association, London, completing his Diploma at The University of North London in 1997. He has worked at Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Chicago and spent several years at Zaha Hadid Architects where he was principle architect for The Centre for Contemporary Arts, Rome. Ada Yvars Bravo studied architecture at ETSAB in Barcelona, qualifying in 1994. Ada has worked at Carlos Ferrater and Jose Luis Mateo in Barcelona and for Florian Beigel’s Architectural Research Unit Pierre D’Avoine and David Chipperfield Architects in London, where she was project architect for The MACLA office building, Barcelona. MYAA’s workload includes the London Markaz and Islamic Centre in West Ham, an eco-scheme in Bow and various housing schemes in Barcelona and London.

Martin Ebert, David Chipperfield Architects

Martin Ebert

After graduation from Stuttgart University, Martin Ebert worked as an architect in two small practices in Germany before obtaining a Master's degree in design from the Institute of Design in Chicago in 1998. During the summers of 1997 and 1998, he worked on design projects for several large corporations in Chicago and Hong Kong.

In 1999, he returned to Europe and started working for David Chipperfield Architects, and was made Associate Director the following year. Ebert leads a team of up to 15 architects with a workload ranging from private residential to large-scale public projects. His main role is to develop the project's design in close collaboration with David Chipperfield, the client and the design team. Key projects include the Ernsting Service Center in Coesfeld-Lette, Germany, which won an RIBA award and was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize, the Public Library in Des Moines, Iowa and the Headquarters for BBC Scotland in Glasgow. He has lectured about his work at David Chipperfield Architects at universities in Oxford, Edinburgh and Canterbury.

Martin Knight, Wilkinson Eyre Architects

Martin Knight

Martin Knight was born in Brussels and grew up mainly in Buckinghamshire. He left school with not quite three A-levels and spent a year working on construction sites before studying architecture at Manchester Polytechnic and the Polytechnic of Central London. His career has included periods spent on building sites and in engineering as well as architectural practices, and his approach to design and construction has always been informed by the practical application of artistic principles, balancing aesthetic with engineering and visual logic. He worked for Michael Hopkins and Partners before joining Wilkinson Eyre Architects in 1997 to work on the Stirling Prize-winning Gateshead Millennium Bridge for which he was Project Architect. He was subsequently responsible for two other extraordinary bridges, at Covent Garden and Gatwick Airport. The Floral Street ‘Bridge of Aspiration’ for the Royal Ballet School, completed in 2003, has attracted widespread acclaim for its unique design, elegantly introduced into a sensitive setting. In contrast, the Pier 6 Airbridge for BAA has radically changed the appearance of the UK’s second airport – the 197m-long, 35m-tall structure striding boldly across one of the busiest airside taxiways.

In addition to bridge design, Knight is responsible for building projects including the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, due to open later in 2005, and the Paragon Transport Interchange, Hull. Currently he is the Associate Director leading teams designing the new museum for the Mary Rose, in Portsmouth, and a 170-unit residential development within the listed Gasholder structures at Kings Cross.

FKL Architects, Michelle Fagan

FKL Architects

Michelle Fagan trained at Dublin Institute of Technology. She then worked for O.M. Ungers in Frankfurt and later Arge Hoger Hare in Berlin, before returning to Dublin where she worked for Ahrends Burton and Koralek In 1998 she founded FKL Architects with Paul Kelly and Gary Lysaght. She has taught at both her old college and at University College Dublin and was an assessor for the 2000 RIAI Travelling Scholarship. Her practice has won many awards the result of  working together as a team with all three partners involved in formulating the concept and a structure of  each project carrying out regular reviews to ensure rigour.

Ben Addy, Moxon architects

Moxon architects

After seven years as a key member of Wilkinson Eyre Architects’ Bridge Team, Ben Addy established the London-based practice, Moxon architects in 2004.

Its current workload ranges from research projects to a number of buildings currently on site including Makkina Studios, a lightweight reproducible bridge for use in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland and the renovation of a large London townhouse into highly serviced studio and conference space for a car designer.  The practice also specialist consultancy services to other more established architectural and design firms. In 1999 Addy won the AJ/Bovis Non-members award for work in the Royal Academy summer show. He was a Civic Trust Awards Assessor in 2004.

Mueller Kneer Associates, Marianne Mueller and Olaf Kneer

Mueller Kneer Associates

Mueller Kneer Associates was founded in 1997 by AA graduates Marianne Mueller and Olaf Kneer. Before setting up their own practice Mueller worked with Raoul Bunschoten/CHORA Institute for Architecture and Urbanism on urban proposals for Paris and Linz. Kneer worked with Ian Ritchie on the Leipzig Glass Hall and with Llewelyn-Davies on large scale public and hospital buildings in the UK, Bahrain and Egypt. Mueller is a lecturer at the University of East London School of Architecture and currently also holds a visiting professorship for Design and Construction at the Technical University Berlin. Over the past eight years the practice’s work has been located in inner city areas, built projects located mainly in the UK and Germany with urban studies in Bratislava, Bilbao, Paris, Monaco and the BeNeLux Region as well as in Sao Paulo and Havana. Projects range from individually commissioned interiors for private clients to residential and commercial buildings, urban design propositions and 1:1 interventions in the public realm.

NORD, Robin Lee and Alan Pert

NORD

NORD was formed in June 2002 by directors Robin Lee and Alan Pert who had both worked at Glasgow-based Zoo Architects. Pert worked on almost every Zoo project until his departure in 2002 as a partner and winner of  the Scottish Design Awards’ Young Architect of the Year. He earlier worked on the refurbishment of the Hellerau theatre in Dresden with GMW & Partners’Berlin office. Robin Lee is an architect with a Glasgow School of Art postgraduate diploma in sculpture. His projects at Zoo included the award winning Royston Recording Studios. Lee worked on the RMJM feasibility study for the Scottish Parliament building and was creative consultant on the first phase of the Homes For The Future. He teaches architectural design at the Mackintosh School of Architecture. Graeme McQuaker also worked at Zoo Architects - for three years as project architect on the award-winning £3 million Tramway arts centre. Earlier he had worked with RMJM Architects rs where he was a senior architect responsible for design quality and output from the Glasgow office. In 2003 McQuaker set up the European office of NORD.

Lynch architects, Patrick and Claudia Lynch

Lynch architects

The son of an Irish builder, Patrick Lynch was born in Henley-on-Thames and studied at Liverpool and Cambridge Universities, including a semester spent at l’Ecole d’Architecture de Lyon. He worked in Germany for two years after graduating before returning to the London to start Lynch architects in 1997. He taught at Kingston University In 1997-2003 and was a unit master at The Architectural Association 2001-3. He continues to contribute to academic conferences and publications and is currently writing a study of the London terrace that explores the public character of the 18th century town house. Lynch architects is based in Hoxton and consist of husband and wife team Patrick and Claudia Lynch and their associate Jacques Dahan. They are currently completing a number of private houses as well as public art commissions and an art gallery, also in London.

Paul Archer Design, 1999

Paul Archer Design

Paul Archer grew up in Bristol and studied at Liverpool University before working for Architecton in Bristol and Tom Mellor & Partners in Preston. He left for Hong Kong in 1994, where he worked for Tonkin Design before returning to the UK to set up Tonkin Architects. In 1999 he set up Paul Archer Design. Its initial focus was on bespoke domestic architecture - enjoying the small scale and working with creative clients. Rob Sterry and Chloe Vanderkindere became associates in 2004 and the team is now eleven.

In 2003 the practice won the competition for New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham. It is currently designing a number of schools alongside the core domestic work including; a 'flat pack' garden pavilion, an underground Hamam in Kensington, and a 'stealth' studio in Harrow. Paul Archer has taught in Liverpool, Hong Kong, Greenwich, and Cardiff.

pH4 (@ hawkins/brown), Andy Puncher and Andrew Hamilton

pH4 (@ hawkins/brown)

Andy Puncher and Andrew Hamilton met at Hawkins\Brown in 1998, and worked on various projects before being made Associates to run a design team within the practice.

Puncher was born in Essex in 1976 and studied at Nottingham University, graduating with first class honours at Degree level and distinctions at Diploma and Masters levels. Hamilton was born in Aberdeen in 1973, and studied at the University of Strathclyde where he graduated with BSc Hons in Architectural Studies. After working in Singapore for a year he returned to Glasgow obtaining a Masters in Computer Aided Building Design. At Hawkins\Brown they have continued to work on a wide range of projects in commercial, residential, arts, civic, community and education sectors.

Current projects include Civic Buildings in Hackney and Corby, large-scale mixed use and residential schemes for a variety of developers across London and smaller scale bespoke arts and office spaces within the South East.

Phil Coffey Architects Ltd

Phil Coffey Architects Ltd

A childhood spent in large successful urban conurbations from Liverpool to Bristol, Sheffield, Cardiff and Glasgow nurtured Phil Coffey’s interest in urban design and public buildings. This, coupled with a love of drawing, led to an architectural career.  He studied at  the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff and Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow before joining Ian Ritchie Architects where he worked on the Plymouth Theatre Royal Production Centre, The Spire of Dublin and most recently the White City Project, West London.

He claims that, while his understanding of architecture is forever evolving 'my enthusiasm is buoyant and my ambition is constant; gaining commissions for public buildings and urban designs to ensure that 'everybody' can find joy by living, visiting and moving through the city'. He recently started his own company, Phil Coffey Architects Ltd.

Piercy Conner, Stuart Piercy and Richard Conner

Piercy Conner

Piercy Conner was formed in 1999 by Stuart Piercy and Richard Conner, both of whom previously worked at Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners. The studio's work covers a broad spectrum of scale and function - from Yo Sushi's Yotel 'sleeping pod hotel' to INREB, a new 'sustainable community'. Its Microflat project has been the subject of several television documentaries for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and most notably Panorama's focus on the future of housing.

The studio, which is pioneering ideas in off-site manufacture, and was runner up in 'Young Building Entrepreneur of the Year 2001' and was selected by the British Council to exhibit in NewYork, Japan and Europe as part of an international touring exhibition exploring the work of Britain's most interesting young practices. Piercy Conner is currently working with Bovis Lend Lease, Derwent Valley Holdings, Country and Metropolitan Plc and Minerva Plc, on a number of mixed-use and residential projects. It believes that urban sustainability 'is as much to do with discovering new economically viable mixed-use relationships as it is about saving energy'.

Pippa Nissen, architect

Pippa Nissen

Pippa Nissen works as an architect and theatre designer and is a partner in architecture practice Nissen Adams together with with Ben Adams. She read architecture at Cambridge and has a Slade School MA in theatre design. She worked for several architecture practices specialising in theatre building design before founding Nissen Adams.

Current schemes include a houseboat, residential projects in London and Brighton, a private members club, an experimental mobile home project and a residential mixed-use scheme in Kings Cross. Both partners teach architecture, and Nissen is a diploma course senior lecturer at Kingston University.

Her recent theatre design work includes sets for RSAMD, Opera North, Northampton Theatre), the Buxton Festival and the Staatsoper, Hannover. She has set up a theatre partnership with opera director Netia Jones withd whom she is working on a project 'Office'. In June 2005 she is exhibiting a series of films at the Prague Biennale her second exhibition in Prague.

Project Orange, Christopher Ash and James Soane

Project Orange

'Orange' was formed in 1992 as a loose collaboration of young architects committed to evolving design ideas through competitions and the exploration of new modes of practice. In 1997 a  new company was established, Project Orange, by Christopher Ash and James Soane. Today Project Orange is a professional studio operating out of London’s Clerkenwell.

The range of projects has expanded to include new build housing, both apartments and one-off houses and a new art and technology block for Oakham School  as well as substantial hotel, restaurant and retail interiors projects. Clients include Radisson SAS, Monsoon and SpaceLab UK. Its experience bridges the world of the traditional architect and that of the interior designer and brand consultant allowing it 'to offer opinions on both brick work detailing and the setting of a table'.

Rob Gregory

Rob Gregory

Rob Gregory joined Feilden Clegg Architects after graduating from the University of Bath in 1996 with first class honours.  In 1998 he moved to Michael Hopkins and Partners where he spent three years working on Manchester City Art Gallery. Toward the end of this period, Gregory’s Masters thesis - Liberation the spirit of the Festival of Britain - was published in the Architectural Review, leading him to pursue work as a freelance writer writing technical and building study features for a range of publications. As his journalistic career became more time-consuming he took a part time position at Allies and Morrison architects, where he spent two years working on the refurbishment strategy for the Royal Festival Hall. In April 2003 he was offered the position as assistant editor of the Architectural Review - where he is still employed. He is the founder and proprietor of Becket Hall Studios in Bristol, Trustee of The Architecture Centre, also in Bristol, and for three years has been a visiting design and dissertation tutor at the University of Bath. He has also been visiting critic and lecturer at UCL, and Arkitektskolen Aarhus, Denmark.

Sanei Hopkins, Abigail Hopkins and Amir Sanei

Sanei Hopkins

Both partners in the Sanei Hopkins Studio are scions of distinguished architectural families. Abigail Hopkins’ parents are Michael and Patty Hopkins and Amir Sanei comes from a long line of architects in Iran (Sanei translates literally into ‘builder of beautiful buildings’). The couple met while working at Michael Hopkins & Partners. Sanei worked there in his year out and joined the practice full time when he graduated from the Architectural Association. Hopkins joined the practice after a spell in the US where she worked for Richard Meier following a masters degree from Columbia University. After 12 and 6 years respectively at the Hopkins office, Sanei & Hopkins left to set up their own practice. Their first completed project was their own house in Dalston which also serve as their studio. Armed with little more than a computer, a fax machine and a good accountant, they have followed a long time of young modern practices - living and working in the same space.

Springett Mackay Architecture, Matthew Springett and Kirsteen Mackay

Springett Mackay Architecture

Matthew Springett established himself as a sole practitioner in 1998 following a number of private commissions in London and Ireland. After graduating from the Bartlett School of Architecture, he was awarded University College London’s Banister Fletcher medal and subsequently awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects Silver Medal in 1998. He has worked with Chris Wilkinson Architects and Studio 8 Architects, and in 2001 formed Springett Mackay Architecture with Mackintosh colleague Kirsteen Mackay. Since forming the practice, they have completed numerous built projects in both the residential and commercial sector and have competed at the highest level within the workspace design sector. Springett maintains an involvement in education, which he believes, is fundamental to both his and the practice's attitude in challenging design conventions. He acts as a design tutor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

Stafford Critchlow, architect

Stafford Critchlow

After a year working for Stephen Bayley on design exhibitions at the Boilerhouse Project in the V&A Museum, Stafford Critchlow went to Newcastle University to study architecture, where he graduated with a double first. He finished his diploma with a year at Venice University studying under Aldo Rossi. Having worked for Gaul Associates in Chicago and for Skidmore Owings & Merrill he joined Chris Wilkinson Architects in 1992. There he worked on the practice's Jubilee Line Extension projects in Stratford and the Dyson HQ in Malmesbury before becoming project architect for Explore @ Bristol millennium science centre. He became an Associate Director of Wilkinson Eyre in 2000 and subsequently led the Museum of London redevelopment as well as the practice's education projects - the two City & Islington College buildings and the exemplar 'School for the Future' secondary school design for DfES, currently in development as the John Madejski City Academy in Reading.

Surface, Richard Scott and Andy MacFee

Surface

Surface was formed by Richard Scott in 1996 in collaboration with philosopher Jeremy Weate and architect Kristen Whittle. Their first project 'Soft-space' won first prize in the Shinkenchiku-Sha Residential Design Award in Japan and 'Aquaphilia' was one of the 'Ideal Rooms' exhibited at the RIBA in 1997. At this time Richard worked for Will Alsop and taught History and Theory at the Bartlett and the Architectural Association with Jeremy Weate. From 1999, Richard concentrated on Surface, winning a competition for the HQ for new media company Razorfish. Surface's next project was to be their largest to date. The £6 million South Eastern European University in Macedonia was designed & constructed in 10 months, using pre-fabrication. Andy MacFee, who was the project architect for Will Alsop's Peckham Library, joined Surface in 2001 as director.

Their work aims at the emergence or 'surfacing' of new experimental possibilities, promoting an architecture of rich experience. Significant built projects for Queen Mary, University of London have brought the practice critical recognition.

Sybarite, Simon Mitchell and Torquil McIntosh

Sybarite

Born in Exeter, and the son of a watercolour artist and seamstress, Simon Mitchell grew up in a very creative home environment.  His passion for architecture was evident at the age of nine when he won the south west school’s competition to design a 'house of the future'. As a student in architecture, he took a keen interest in the works of architects such Aldo van Eyck, Charles Eames, Pierre Chareaux and Jan Kaplicky.  After his final year of his Diploma in Architecture at Greenwich University in London, he joined Future Systems where he played a key role in the development of award-winning projects such as the Lord's Media Centre and an earth-sheltered private house on the coast of Wales.  In 2002 he set up Sybarite with his colleague Torquil McIntosh, a graduate architect from Paris. 

The practice has created over 40 shop fit-outs worldwide for a number of clients such as Marni, Joseph, Cox & Power and Guys & Dolls.  Sybarite is currently working on major international projects in the Middle East and Paris as well as producing its own furniture collection.

5th Studio, Tom Holbook and Oliver Smith

5th Studio

Tom Holbook claims to have fallen into an architectural career 'by a mixture of coincidence and moments where I have been lucky enough to be inspired by others'. He started his working life in the local theatre acting as a flyman by night and a scenic carpenter by day and went on to freelance as a prop-maker for various film productions. His decision to join the interior design course at Kingston Polytechnic was prompted by the realisation that all key decisions were taken by the art department, invariably peopled by graduates of the London art schools. He went on to join the diploma course at Cambridge University. Two years after graduating, he was invited back to run the First Year at the school, and has taught there ever since. For the last four years he has run a diploma unit, working on the relationship between architecture and the scale of infrastructure and landscape. He established 5th Studio with Oliver Smith in 1997. Holbrook enjoys a way of life where, he says 'I have been fortunate not to have had to work for anyone else in a serious way, but rather have the relative freedom created by teaching and then forming a practice of my own'.

Witherford Watson Mann Architects, Stephen Witherford

Witherford Watson Mann Architects

Stephen Witherford, Christopher Watson and William Mann studied together in 1991 in the 5th year at Cambridge University. They started collaborating informally in 1997 and set up Witherford Watson Mann Architects in 2001 after winning Europan 6 for Peckham, South London. The practice now has a staff of eight. Its first building, designed in collaboration with Gregori Chiarotti Architects, was Amnesty International UK's new offices and outreach facilities, completed in March 2005.

Their work is characterised by an interest in the sometimes surprising relation of city and landscape and the mutual dependence of public buildings, collective space and everyday activities. These concerns are particularly evident in projects for social housing in Gistel, Belgium and the Area Development Framework for Creekmouth to Castle Green which is been carried out with Juurlink & Geluk urbanism and landscape. Current projects include a basement theatre and exhibition space for the Brighton Fringe, feasibility work for the London Borough of Brent’s new Civic Centre, and planning and developing the Local Movement Infrastructure for the Lower Lea Valley.