Established in 1996, we started small: our first commission was for a public house in Walsall which won an award for the best new- build pub in 1999. This was the beginning of our interest in public architecture. Other interesting projects followed: a prototype for suburban housing in Stevenage - our first exploration of social housing, a studio house in Bethnal Green and the transformation of a former paint factory into a residential building.
Over the years our focus has expanded both geographically and typologically, and so has recognition of our work. We were awarded the Schelling Prize for Architecture and the Tessenow Gold Medal in 2006, and a number of RIBA awards and international prizes have followed.
Since the outset, we have engaged with the debate within the profession by lecturing and writing, and have curated a number of exhibitions about the themes we continue to explore in our projects: brickwork construction; affordable housing; the relationship between thinking and making; and teaching and practice.
We are now a team of 35, working on major urban projects across Europe, chief among them the transformation of the former Citroën car factory at the heart of Brussels into the Kanal-Pompidou Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the redevelopment of a former hospital site into a performing arts quarter in Leuven.
Both are projects of great civic significance which will act as catalysts for the regeneration of the surrounding areas and involve local governments, cultural institutions, the arts community and a range of local stakeholders.
We are also continuing to explore housing models to find relevant solutions to the changing social demographics of our time.
In addition to some large-scale residential projects in Brussels, Paris, Zurich, Antwerp and Munich, we have recently completed a care campus in Flanders which includes specialist care provisions for residents with early-onset dementia and we are building a contemporary version of a traditional mansion block in Hampstead which redefines the concept of retirement living.
We are a European practice in outlook and staff composition. First established in London, we have been operating a second studio in Zurich since 2010. Both studios are currently involved in a wide range of international projects ranging from urban planning to regeneration, public buildings, housing and private houses.
In 2019, following the winning of the Kanal-Pompidou Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art competition, we set up a dedicated project office in Brussels - Atelier Kanal.
Our approach to work is based on a collaborative ethos: we value team work both as a way of developing rewarding relationships with colleagues, clients and consultants, and as a tool for broadening our cultural and disciplinary references.
Each project is an open-ended enquiry which starts by questioning assumptions to unlock the hidden potential of places, and of briefs. We aim to develop imaginative projects that are specific, appropriate and unique.
We take great pride in our expertise in the craft of construction. We delight in experiment and work with forms of construction that express the character of different materials and reinforce the associations they evoke.
We are particularly interested in exploring how materials contribute to the creation of particular atmospheres. We design using imagination and empathy, as well as skill, thinking about how people experience architecture.
Durability is a key aspect of a building’s social value and a quality we pursue: we believe it is important to choose the right materials, detail them carefully and understand how they will weather.
In a time of climate emergency and rapid demographic change, sustainability must be built into the way we conceive buildings for an uncertain future.
A truly holistic way of addressing this imperative is to consider buildings as a series of layers, each with their own temporal dimension: while the structure and urban elements can last for centuries, the lifespan of installations, internal layouts and finishes is necessarily much shorter.
Intelligent buildings should be capable of being re-configured and re-organised to respond to changes in patterns of occupation and technological innovation.
We aim to design buildings that are durable and adaptable and believe that an economy of means is a useful approach for projects of any scale and budget - the first necessary step in considering the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability.
We have worked on a number of projects for the re-use of obsolete buildings: we transformed a former brewery into an international business school, on old school building into a city library and are currently turning a disused car factory into an arts centre, and re-purposing an army barracks into civic offices, apartments, an art school and a hotel.
European cities, beautiful in their incompleteness and improvisation, challenge us to find ever new ways of grounding our work within existing urban landscapes.
We are interested in working with what exists, re-imagining it, transforming it and exploring ways of expressing continuity — or rather the coexistence of past and present — at an urban level.
Our work focuses upon the wider urban and social context of projects, not just buildings: we work on the spaces between and the buildings’ potential to act as catalysts for social transformation.
Housing has been a crucial focus of our work from the very start and continues to fascinate us. We have successfully built for local authorities, private developers and housing associations, engaging with the challenge of making houses where people feel at home.
Designing housing means grappling with space and budget constraints, building codes and regulations, the demands of sustainability and challenging the entrenched positions of a profit-led industry. It also means considering the relationship between the individual and the collective and engaging with special needs communities to humanise care provisions, as in the case of care homes for older residents and facilities designed around the needs of people with dementia.
Reflecting on our personal and collective experiences of dwelling, we are committed to exploring new housing models that reflect current household structures, patterns of use and ownership.
As a creative and reflective practice, our work is significantly enriched by the questioning attitude and collaborative endeavour that are at the heart of education.
Over more than two decades of teaching at some of the best schools of architecture in the world we have engaged with the theoretical aspects of the discipline and developed our own thinking about place-making, about mediating between the old and the new, about the relationship between the domestic and urban scale.
Teaching keeps research and enquiry at the centre of our practice: our ideas are developed and improved when tested through discussion and sharpened by exposure to critique.