Architectural ambition is the practice’s driving force, and by focusing our energies on the quality of our work and valuing this above all else, we put ourselves in the best position to serve our clients well, to support our people’s careers and to maintain a healthy business.

If architectural ambition drives us forward then collaboration, coupled with strategic leadership, is the means by which we achieve it, both in respect of the design of our projects and the running of the business itself.

The practice’s evolution from four partners in 1989 to around 500 employee-owners today has only reinforced our belief, as a business, in:

• the need to invest in and to nurture the diverse talent across all areas of the practice as a means of sustaining our ambition
• engaging with and contributing to the wider profession by openly sharing the knowledge and experience we have gained and the lessons we have learned
• engaging with and contributing to the wider world by sharing our skills and donating our resources where we believe they will have most impact
  
• safeguarding the needs of our clients and the people who will use and encounter the places we design
• the value of long-term relationships built on honesty, professionalism and fairness
• having a broad plan in place, but one which can flex in response to challenges and opportunities, and which offers the space to pursue ideas
• placing importance not only on the quality of the practice’s work but on the practice itself
• the idea that our ambition to make exemplary architecture is underpinned by being a professionally run business and a good place to work.

Read more about our practice’s history and transition to employee ownership here.