It seems everything Gareth Hoskins does wins prizes. His two-year-old practice is the Building Awards’ young architect of the year and its best-known work, Glasgow’s Mackintosh Interpretation Centre, has just picked up two Scottish Design Awards. Plus, the firm has won its first competition in England – the conversion of Durham’s Light Infantry Museum. “We’re getting to the stage where we’re getting picked against the big guns,” he says with a smile.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
We will still have our base in Scotland, but I want to work in London and further afield.
Who is your hero?
Stephen Hodder, who proved that you don’t have to be based in London to win work.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Lack of time. I shouldn’t have said that – no developers will call me now. I didn’t mean it!
Gill Riley, 29 - GGR Glass Services
Gill Riley, managing director of the Oldham-based specialist she owns with her brother, has taken a leaf out of the car industry’s book, putting robots on sites to install glazing and other materials. “Architects are designing bigger panes of glass in buildings and we saw a market for installing them safety and quickly with robots,” she says, matter-of-factly. The firm now has a turnover of £1.4m and its robots have worked on Portcullis House and the Millennium Dome.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I’d like GGR to be multinational.
Who is your hero?
Craig Parkin of SM Murdoch, a curtain walling contractor. He never makes a mistake.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
There aren’t enough women who know what they are talking about. Men can have a problem with women so we need to know more than they do.
Justine Fancy, 27 - Willmott Dixon
A senior surveyor in Willmott Dixon’s eastern housing division, Justine Fancy is part of a small group involved in partnering work on social housing. “We operate a shared savings scheme with our clients, often with an open-book policy,” she says. “We start right at feasibility stage, and get involved in planning applications and site investigation. This allows us to bring in everybody early on. There are benefits to everybody and people are less aggressive.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I’d like to be looking at the strategic aspects of a construction company.
Who is your hero?
I admire people like Richard Branson who make something out of niche opportunities.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The skills shortage is the main problem. And narrow-minded people who avoid new ideas.
Adam Glover, 32 - Gardiner & Theobald
For the past four years, Adam Glover has been project manager on one of the City’s highest-profile projects – the £100m Merrill Lynch headquarters. He joined Gardiner & Theobald after a quantity surveying degree and is now director of Gardiner & Theobald Management Services. “I enjoy the front end of projects where what you’re doing really gives the client value,” he says.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I suspect I’ll be in a more managerial position, but I’d like to stay involved with projects.
Who is your hero?
Tiger Woods. I admire someone so young who can perform at such a level.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Health and safety is bad.
Andrew Scrivener, 35 - MEPC
“The best thing about the industry is the range of people you meet, from people making the decisions, to people on site,” says Andrew Scrivener. But lately, the MEPC project manager has been meeting a lot of the same people. He is just finishing work on the £65m Woolgate Exchange office in the City; his next job is a £100m office on nearby Lombard Street with the same team.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
It’ll be somewhere where I can add value – and have fun.
Who is your hero?
I don’t have one. I believe you are your own hero.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Our historical hang-ups. We have to get over the lack of trust in the project team.
Michál Cohen, 36 - Walters and Cohen
The South African architect started Walters and Cohen with her former University of Natal classmate, Cindy Walters. Cohen is particularly proud of its two competition wins, an art gallery in Durban, submitted just months after the practice was set up in 1994, and the more recent Yehudi Memorial Hall in Surrey. “We have different strengths. Cindy is a talented designer, and I’m better on the building side.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I’d like the practice to be slightly bigger. And I would like to do more public buildings.
Who is your hero?
Cindy. It’s hard running a practice and being a mother.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Bad workmanship.
Steve Smith, 36 - Northcroft
Northcroft’s Steve Smith says he has never really had a fixed career plan yet he’s already managing director of London cost management at the QS and has just joined its main board. Right now, he’s on top of the world – working on Sellar Property’s £600m scheme to build the world’s tallest building at London Bridge. But he denies any claims to the limelight: “Success is a reflection of the people around you. You can never do it alone.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I’d like to head a consultancy.
Who is your hero?
In design, Lord Foster. My heroine is Britney Spears – and my wife.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Our reputation.
Cindy Walters, 37 - Walters and Cohen
Australian-born Cindy Walters cut her professional teeth at Foster and Partners, and her practice upholds the Foster ethos of clean lines and an accent on space and daylight. Walters plans to enter more competitions, and reports a healthy flow of new enquiries. “We’ve had recommendations from lots of people, for serious projects, not just little houses.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
Designing public buildings.
Who is your hero?
Anyone who can manage a practice and keep up a private life at the same time.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
I’m petrified by government directives that everything is to go design and build.
Jeff Kirby, 38 - Urban Research Laboratory
Jeff Kirby is managing director of Urban Research Laboratory, a group of 10 architects that aims to bring sustainable design to the commercial market. Canadian-born Kirby attributes URL’s success to “understanding all aspects of a scheme”, which is where his former career in property comes in handy. Kirby worked with Alsop & Störmer and on the GSW project in Berlin, “the first environment-friendly high-rise”, before setting up URL. It is now working on a feasibility study for a £60m project in Lewisham, south London, and has just submitted a £60m scheme in Hackney for planning approval.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
Working on bigger projects and getting better at what we do.
Who is your hero?
Madonna. She’s sustainable and a genius at reinventing herself.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The infighting.
Mike Tonkin, 39 - Tonkin Architects
Architect Mike Tonkin likes to think of himself as a detective or psychoanalyst, saying his job “is to find out what the building is for”. For three years, he carried out his investigations in Hong Kong, becoming one of its
best-known purveyors of bars, nightclubs and cinemas. In 1997, he moved back to London’s King’s Cross. On the books at the moment is a north London house and studio for a photographer and jeweller – the house is conceived as a jewellery box and the studio as a pinhole camera.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I’ll be in King’s Cross. The city is moving east, so by 2010, it will be in the middle of London.
Who is your hero?
Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. I prefer my heroes dead – they’re less likely to disappoint.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Never knowing what’s going to happen. It’s the best thing, too.
Josephine Pletts, 29 - Softroom Architects
“I feel very privileged to be allowed to change people’s lives,” says Josephine Pletts. At
the moment, people are returning the favour. Pletts’ latest project, the Kielder Belvedere –
a shelter in Kielder Forest, Northumberland – won a Royal Fine Art Commission Trust award and an RIBA regional award last month. For Pletts, the shelter was a “fantastic opportunity”. For Soho-based Softroom, which creates virtual as well as built environments and designed the Wallpaper* house for the chic lifestyle magazine, it was a first new-build project.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I just want to be designing beautiful buildings.
Who are your heroes?
Artist Bruce Nauman and architect Dan Graham.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The gender bias – I wish there were more women the industry.
Roger Black, 33 - Roger Black Developments
The Canadian-born developer trained as an architect and was drawn to London in 1992 by all the talk surrounding Canary Wharf. Last year, he set up Roger Black Developments, which specialises in urban residential projects, and is currently working on a £14m scheme in east London. He says the government should raise its target for new homes on brownfield land and is a big fan of the Rogers report: “The pattern of development is spot on. We need high-density urban cities, not low-density suburban ones.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
Making a major contribution to the urban mosaic of British cities.
Who is your hero?
I have great respect for David Goldstone, chairman of Regalian.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
There’s a great shortage of skilled labour and in many areas I think people’s work is pretty poor.
Eloy Mazon, 26 - WS Atkins
Back in March, Spanish-born Eloy Mazon was named young consultant engineer of the year by the Association of Consulting Engineers. Given his achievements, the accolade isn’t surprising. He is an engineering manager, running the mechanical design for the West Coast Main Line rail project and heading a team of 26. He studied in Spain and Germany before moving to the UK in 1997. He joined Atkins 16 months ago and has risen rapidly through the ranks.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
To be on the board of a plc.
Who’s your hero?
My father. He started from zero and became the chief executive of Spain’s largest engineer.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
It isn’t moving as fast as other industries in terms of technology.
James Pickard, 37 - Cartwright Pickard
When James Pickard was five, his father commissioned an architect to design a new home. “The architect was very modern, and I was so inspired I used to go and watch the house come out of the ground,” he reminisces. Now a partner in architect Cartwright Pickard, he is celebrating his own design success with the award-winning modular housing for the Peabody Trust in east London’s Hackney.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I hope to grow the practice from 15 to 30-60 people.
Who is your hero?
Architect Peter Foggo. I learned about teamwork from him.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Its conservatism. When you compare it with other industries, such as IT, it seems unintelligent and unsophisticated.
Phil Brown, 36 - Causeway Technologies
As a young civil engineer, Phil Brown recognised that IT might hold more opportunities for the budding entrepreneur than project management. After turning Siteman into one of the leading estimating software houses, his ambitions now lie with becoming construction’s dot-com king. Now chief executive of Causeway Technologies, Brown launched Buildingwork.com this summer, a business-to-business portal.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
My aspirations are for the portal to be ubiquitous, like the Hoover is to dirty floors.
Who is your hero?
Nelson Mandela.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Its appalling reputation. Most people view it as tinpot when it is really a high-tech industry.
Luke Wessely, 39 - Allan Roofing and Fenestration
In just 11 years, Luke Wessely has risen from project manager to owner of specialist Allan Roofing and Fenestration. He cut his teeth with the firm as contracts director on Broadgate, after working for Schal. Under his tenure as managing director and major shareholder, the modern roofing and glazing systems specialist has gone from strength to strength, with annual growth of 30% in the past five years.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I want to be the unique provider of top quality envelope systems.
Who is your hero?
Ian Wylie at Mace for his teambuilding skills.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The culture of non-payment. Arguing with main contractors is a waste of time and energy.
Suzie Dickens, 31 - Gleeson City Living
Qualified with two degrees in land management, Suzie Dickens is development manager for Gleeson City Living, responsible for building apartment blocks close to Manchester city centre. She is also project manager for the Allerton Bywater model village, the second DETR-sponsored model community after Greenwich. “Allerton Bywater is a very challenging project that calls for a lot of co-ordination,” she says. Quite an understatement, given the organisational minefield posed by the development consortium of Gleeson and Miller Homes and the design, planning and consultation procedures, not to mention the involvement of local MPs and a visiting panel sent by the DETR.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
Undertaking innovative regeneration developments.
Who is your hero?
Tom Bloxham of [loft developer] Urban Splash. I admire what he’s achieved in Manchester.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The awfully long time that things take to come through in urban regeneration.
Ciron Edwards, 26 - Fluid Design
Ciron Edwards is one of Fluid Design’s new generation of architects, trained by Della Popkin and co at the University of London and now teaching there himself. His forte is what he calls “new forms of representation”, developing interactive media and software and high-tech consultation tools “to stimulate and even provoke the public”. Internet and graphic design is a core activity for London-based Fluid, as is rebranding. After carrying out a consultation exercise for Hackney Town Hall Square last year, it is now working on a logo that will rebrand the area as Hackney Cultural Quarter.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I want to go more into interactive media, doing something that combines architecture and the digital environment.
Who is your hero?
Rem Koolhaas. And there are people like Marshall McLuhan, pioneers, who aren’t really heroes but I think are interesting.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The bureaucracy can be very frustrating.
Jason Millett, 35 - Bovis Lend Lease
When Jason Millett moved back to his home town of Manchester to work in Bovis’ new office in 1988, he probably didn’t imagine he would end up running it. But that’s what he now does as Bovis Lend Lease’s regional director for the north of England. Two years ago, he walked away with a gold medal in the Building Manager of the Year Awards for his work on the Forster Square development in Bradford, and he has worked on a string of prestigious projects including Sheffield’s Meadowhall Centre and the Selfridges store in Manchester’s Trafford Centre. He describes his job as “more of a business management role than pure construction,” and says he enjoys the people side of it most.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I’d like to have made a difference in construction, changing the industry for the better.
Who is your hero?
Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He was a proper builder who did everything – designed, built, looked after the finances.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
It’s too fragmented – professions don’t work together enough.
Della Popkin, 34 - Fluid Design
Della Popkin gave up a career in nursing to study architecture at the University of North London. Yet she says Fluid Design, the practice she co-founded in 1996, is influenced by her former career. “I bring the ideas about social and human relationships into my work.” The practice’s public consultation work for regeneration projects certainly draws on it. Fluid specialises in providing a combination of traditional and digital consultation methods, most recently for a New Deal for Communities project in London’s Newham. That’s not to say it does not design buildings: Popkin has just started work on five live/work spaces in Finchley, north London. And if all that were not enough to keep her busy, she is a tutor at her old university.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I hope that we can still work in the same way, can still come up with fresh ideas.
Who is your hero?
Rem Koolhaas as an architect.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The hours, and the bureaucracy you have to get through.
Clare Edwards, 36 - Construction Confederation
Clare Edwards left behind the luxury of private practice to become the Construction Confederation’s director of legal affairs because she wanted to get closer to the industry. “I like the diversity and being involved in issues ahead of private practice and seeing the practical side of legal issues,” she explains. The 36-year-old rugby fan hopes to witness a sea-change in the adversarial culture inherent in the sector.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I think I will still be working in the industry but maybe in-house with a construction company. Heading up an industry body would also be a natural move.
Who is your hero?
Definitely Gareth Edwards. He was the best scrum half ever.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
It’s very slow to change and it’s an industry with more than its fair share of dinosaurs.
It would also be nice to see more women.
Ivan Harbour, 38 - Richard Rogers Partnership
Fresh-faced Ivan Harbour belies both his years and his position as senior director with Richard Rogers Partnership. He is project architect on the new Welsh assembly building in Cardiff, and became its spin doctor in the week before the assembly voted to approve the scheme. After 15 years in one of the world’s highest-profile practices, Harbour’s enthusiasm for the industry remains undimmed. “I love construction. I’ve just built my own house and it’s been a terrific experience.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I’m a shareholder in the partnership and I’ve no plans to be anywhere else in 10 years’ time. The work is too interesting.
Who is your hero?
I don’t have any heroes; I’m fairly day-to-day. But I do admire lots of architects.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Not being able to construct!
Too many great schemes don’t get built.
Paul Hinkin, 35 - Chetwood Associates
The Chetwood Associates regional director has just been promoted to head a new sustainable architecture division. Paul Hinkin’s (below) main achievement to date is J Sainsbury’s eco-store in Greenwich, which has won widespread acclaim for a well co-ordinated package of practicable green innovations.
What would you like to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I’d like to be running a business with a track record in sustainable design and serving a variety of blue-chip clients.
Who is your hero?
Malcolm Parry, my professor at the Welsh School of Architecture, who first sowed the seeds in my mind of the way buildings work.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
It’s too cellular, which leads to decisions being made without a holistic analysis of the problems.
Jean-Philippe Cartz, 38 - Building Design Partnership
French-born Jean-Philippe Cartz is what everybody wants: an all-rounder. A qualified architect, he took a masters degree in structural engineering because, “I wanted to work on projects where architecture merges with engineering”. Now director of Building Design Partnership’s special structures group, recent projects have included Number One court at Wimbledon and the National Maritime Museum.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
Working on projects where the boundaries between architecture and engineering are blurred.
Who is your hero?
I don’t have one, but many people have inspired me, such as Stirling, Foster, Rogers.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The professions are too strongly defined. It’s a shame – they can contribute to each other.
Ian Hedges, 33 - Amec
Since joining Amec 12 years ago, Ian Hedges has worked his way up to director of projects. A mechanical engineer by training, he now leads a group of 120 designers and project managers working on high-tech, highly serviced pharmaceutical projects. Projects include a manufacturing facility for asthma drugs and, more bizarrely, the UK’s largest ice cream distribution centre. Hedges spends every other weekend at Cranfield studying for an MBA because, he says, “it will give me a much wider understanding of the economy and our clients’ businesses”.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
Delivering business solutions and developing long-term, global relationships with our clients.
Who is your hero?
Richard Branson, because of his entrepreneurship and vision.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Its lack of dynamism and resistance to change when it is so obvious that change is needed.
Vince Clancy, 35 - Turner & Townsend
Vince Clancy is managing partner of the cost-management arm of QS Turner & Townsend. His multiskilled team includes engineers as well as quantity surveyors. “We concentrate on the front end of projects with cost modelling and making a business case for clients,” he says. In his six years at Turner & Townsend, Clancy has worked at the front end of some of the largest building projects in the country, including Heathrow Terminal 5, Railtrack’s King’s Cross redevelopment and Tate Britain.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I look forward to the globalisation of the company.
Who is your hero?
Bill Gates, because he’s harnessed ideas from his employees to create a powerful company.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Adversarialism – it has resulted in lack of investment, lack of rewards and lack of good people.
Clinton McCarthy, 35 - Emlor Homes
Emlor homes joint managing director Clinton McCarthy could be said to have housebuilding in his blood. The son of McCarthy & Stone boss John McCarthy, Clinton and his brother Spencer started Emlor six years ago. The out-of-town development specialist now turns over £7m a year. A carpenter by trade, Clinton spent his early working years with his father’s company. “My father felt a carpentry apprenticeship was the best way to learn about the construction process. I think he also felt working on site would be a good education in itself.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
Racing yachts. I’m currently participating in the Melges 24 European Championship in Falmouth.
Who is your hero?
My father.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The weather – spoken like a carpenter.
Spencer McCarthy, 34 - Emlor Homes
Like his brother, 34-year-old Spencer started his working life as a carpenter with McCarthy & Stone. After taking two years out to play polo in Argentina, he returned to the family firm as a site agent and later became adviser on site purchases. “I enjoyed working at McCarthy & Stone,” he says, “but I started picking up vibes that my success was due to nepotism, so I told my father I was leaving to set up Elmor with Clinton.” Spencer is now joint managing director of Elmor Homes.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I want to be selling 1000 units a year and reaching a three to four goal handicap in polo.
Who is your hero?
Graham McPherson [alias Suggs of Madness], and my father.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Having the name McCarthy. People think my father financed our business. He didn’t, but he did give us invaluable advice.
Steve McGuckin, 39 - Mace
Now director of consultancy at Mace, trained architect Steve McGuckin joined the construction manager after spells with clients, contractors and architects, notably working with Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners on Waterloo Station. In his spare time, he also managed to complete an MBA. “The MBA is invaluable because it enables you to understand the business side of the industry, both from a client and company perspective.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
To still enjoy my work. Beyond that, who knows? Hopefully, still working with good people.
Who is your hero?
Bobby Moore – he always kept cool under pressure.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
People with closed minds. Too many people pigeonhole their own and other people’s potential.
Tina Smith, 37 - Westbury Homes
Westbury Homes’ North-west managing director showed her mettle when she started the housebuilder’s East Midlands division from scratch and became its managing director. Tina Smith used to be an accountant, but says she “realised my direction in life was not to collect fees, and housebuilding was the job on offer”. After 11 years with Westbury Homes, she has clearly taken to her second career like a duck to water.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I want to be in a job where I’m making a difference.
Who is your hero?
My husband, because he gave up his career as an accountant to look after our two daughters when I was promoted.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Its lack of innovation and lack of forward-thinking.
John Williams, 35 - EC Harris
Welsh-born John Williams was a child performer with the Welsh National Opera but swapped the greasepaint and arias for the lure of quantity surveying. He joined EC Harris from university and has been with the practice for more than 13 years. He is now a partner and head of Gleeds’ delivery and innovation division. He says: “I’m keen to influence the ever-changing role of the QS in the industry and that’s what part of how I see my role. Quantity surveying is changing fast and dramatically.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
At 45, I think I’d like to take up singing and acting again.
Who is your hero?
My music teacher in primary school, who encouraged me to take up singing and acting.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The culture of adversarialism.
Anna Stewart, 36 - Laing
Anna Stewart loves the variety of her job. As one of Laing’s two national commercial managers, she dashes between Scotland to London controlling the contractor’s finances for civil engineering projects in the north and the capital. The Glaswegian joined Laing in 1982 as a trainee quantity surveyor. “I fell into it because I started a maths degree, dropped out after six months and wanted a job that had a qualification at the end.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I’d like to be working for a more profitable Laing.
Who is your hero?
John Smith [the former leader of the Labour Party], not necessarily for his politics but as a person.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Its perception and the way it is undervalued by those who are not involved with it.
Jonathan Stewart, 32 - Gleeds
Gleeds’ Jonathan Stewart is already responsible for a £4bn portfolio of private finance initiative and public-private partnership schemes. If that’s not enough, the QS and project manager also looks after the group’s prime contracting and corporate PFI work. He says construction is an exciting industry and should do more to sell itself. “There is a lot that’s good in our industry and we need to shout about it,” he says.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I’d like to be at the forefront of Gleeds’ development and on the main board.
Who is your hero?
My 13-month daughter Phoebe.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The image the public has of the industry. Sadly, it’s all about cowboys and that isn’t a proper reflection of the industry.
Joe McNulty, 37 - Integra
“If you go to a dinner party
and say you are a builder, people look at you as if you are a secondhand car salesman,” laments Joe McNulty. The managing director of Brighton-based small contractor Integra is determined to turn around that image in his own firm. He has started by eschewing the subcontracting that gives the industry a bad name by directly employing 90 people to carry out the £10m of work the firm carries out every year.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
To have expanded out of Brighton and Cheltenham and to see my turnover soar to £50m.
Who are your heroes?
I admire Charles Darwin. He went out on a limb about his beliefs.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Definitely the cowboy image.
Helen Garthwaite, 35 - Lewis Silkin
How many solicitors would admit that “the law can be very dull”? Helen Garthwaite for one, but she quickly adds: “Construction law is real.” Garthwaite is head of the construction and engineering unit at London law firm Lewis Silkin. She says it offers clients, including the Millennium Commission, something different from other firms. “We’ve got a young team. Some of the law firms are dinosaurs. We want to get out on site.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I want to be heading the unit.
I expect to be more mobile – moving from site to site.
Who is your hero?
Landscape gardener Gertrude Jekyll, for her empathy with her subject and her clients.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The industry and the people in it don’t get enough recognition.
John Lee, 35 - Arca
Arca director John Lee openly embraces the Egan report. His five-strong practice has registered with the Construction Best Practice programme and gained Investors in People accreditation. It was rewarded for its innovation in the Britannia Basin international competition for housing. Another of the Manchester-based architect’s more unusual projects, a wooden footbridge in the centre of the city, goes on site in September.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I hope Arca will be doing a major public project, like a gallery or a school.
Who is your hero?
Steve Jobs of Apple. I admire his bravado and vision.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Quality. We must improve the quality of thought and the quality of the product.
Glenn Howells, 38 - Glenn Howells Architects
In the 10 years Glenn Howells has been running his practice, he has refurbished the building he now occupies, Birmingham’s Custard Factory, and completed three award-winning arts buildings: Hereford’s Courtyard Theatre, the Dream Factory children’s theatre in Warwick and the Armagh Theatre and Crafts Centre. “Armagh is the one I’m most proud of. People wrote to me to thank me for it.”
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
Keeping the firm the same size, working with the same people.
Who is your hero?
Robin Spence, who I worked with before I started my own practice.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The increasing dominance of speed as the main driving force behind getting things done.
David Crookes, 37 - Fluid Structural Engineers and Technical Designers
David Crookes left Alan Conisbee Associates to set up Fluid Structural Engineers and Technical Designers with John Graham. In the first seven months, the gamble has paid off. He has provided structural glazing services for the Science Museum and is regularly called on by the BBC to advise on structural glazing for its programmes and buildings.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
I am going to have the first technical design studio.
Who is your hero?
Designer Mark Newson who works on projects as varied as cars and restaurants.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
The regimentation. People think this is my job and that’s yours, and there is very little crossover.
Roger Ridsdill Smith, 31 - Ove Arup & Partners
Roger Ridsdill Smith is currently in the news as project engineer for the ill-fated Millennium Bridge. Despite the furore, the Ove Arup & Partners associate is keen to work on more bridges in the UK and abroad. An enthusiastic advocate for construction in general and structural engineering in particular, Ridsdill Smith’s project CV includes Citigroup Tower in London Docklands and Nantes Law Courts.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
Designing different structures, like yachts perhaps.
Who is your hero?
Architect and engineer Pier Luigi Nervi.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Its adversarial nature and its conservatism.
Chris Nasah, 36 - Knak Design
Born in Cameroon, Chris Nasah is one of just a few dozen black architects working in Britain. He formed Knak Design at 26, and it now boasts offices in London, Ghana and Cameroon. It has helped create an arts and crafts factory in South Africa and a whole city in KwaZulu Natal. Nasah also works for the Arts Council of England as “a sort of ambassador, encouraging underprivileged kids to consider architecture”.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years’ time?
To be anywhere in the world, but with a communications device that lets me work anywhere else.
Who is your hero?
Richard Branson.
What’s the worst thing about construction?
Local communities feel they don’t have a part to play in creating the built environment.
