Location?

Aldgate Tower.

However, I provide professional leadership to all our architecture teams in Europe the Middle East, India and Africa (EMIA) so I move between offices a lot but our Aldgate office in London is my base. 

When did the AECOM EMIA architecture practice start?

We don’t have a legacy architecture practice like AECOM has in the US where they bought one or two architecture practices along the way. The only exception to that is DEGW which was bought by Davis Langdon before Davis Langdon was acquired by AECOM, but that was quite small. Broadly, the AECOM EMIA architecture practice is a new practice starting from scratch grown organically.

We officially started as a stand-alone architecture practice in October 2013. Before that there were small pockets of architecture practitioners - there was a small team doing specifically sports venues, a group in Abu Dhabi doing executive architecture work and a small team in Madrid doing some transportation work. However, I was recruited specifically in 2013 to set up and build an architecture practice across this AECOM region that is part of the wider multidisciplinary platform. 

How many staff?

485 in EMIA, globally just under 1600. That doesn’t take into account the trained architects who are working in other roles which we reckon are an additional 700/800. 

Company ethos?

As a practice, firstly we are here to practice architecture in a multidisciplinary environment. We are exploring the boundaries of the profession of architecture in not only the traditional multidisciplinary environment of building, engineering and cost management, but also in the wider ‘design, build, finance and operate’ environment. We are developing methods to improve quality, risk management, efficiency and all those aspects by architects being part of integrated teams, and at the table of the wider business, rather than being stand alone. It means we are bringing design thinking as well as design content to the enterprise.

Current projects?

• The new Pier A for Schiphol Airport with a local Dutch firm CEPEZED Architects. 
• We are the executive architects for the new Kuwait Terminal 2 designed by Foster + Partners.
• We are onsite and into the final year of completion of works at Waterloo Station, where we are integrating the International terminal into the original building, increasing the overall station capacity.
• We are doing the new masterplan for Park Station in Johannesburg which is a very exciting project actually because it’s been neglected for a very long time and the role of what that station is going to become in Johannesburg is important. 
• We are completing the detail design of a new tower in Minsk for Gazprom.
• Also we are doing a large residential scheme in Shoreditch which is completely designed by AECOM.

Have you always been at this studio?

Personally no, prior to this I’ve only ever been a practice owner or partner since my late-twenties. 

AECOM moved into the Aldgate office, which was developed in house, in 2016.

Favourite part of the studio?

I like our cinema/crit room as it allows us to discuss ideas in a different way and it is small and intimate. My favourite part will be, the model making workshop but, it is taking us a little while to fit it out and get all our equipment in. 

I also very much like the shared round corner tables, that’s where I go and sit as a matter of choice. 

Favourite nearby coffee shop?

At the bottom of the building is Grumpy Mule which does great coffee and I really like sitting outside and watching all my colleagues come and go.

Do you eat lunch together?

We have a central space with an amazing canteen so we do tend to eat lunch together, we don’t necessarily eat as a team but we will all congregate there.

Pets allowed?

No

Favourite building in London?

The building currently high in my consciousness is Alexandra Road by Neave Brown. I visited it as a student in my second year at Macintosh in 1981. 36 years later, I attended Neave Browns lecture at the Hackney Empire following his receipt of the RIBA Gold Medal. His ambition and execution are as outstanding today as they were in 1981, and gave me much food for thought about their relevance today.