Life after alsop

Christophe Egret

Christophe Egret has three black notebooks of varying sizes that accompany him wherever he goes. Looking through them is like getting a glimpse into the former Alsop design director's constantly engaging mind: his top 10 all-time favourite architects, sketches of monuments yet to be proposed, a list of the public's favourite buildings, a diagram of the make-up of his ideal practice. He says he has to buy new notebooks every month.

Egret is in a relaxed mood and happy to share the sort of thoughts that litter the notebooks. His practice, Studio Egret West, celebrated its first birthday the previous night and he appears pleased to have this milestone under his belt. The setting is equally laid back - the practice's loft-conversion office in Clerkenwell is a gem of light and warmth at the top of several flights of stairs. Over Christmas, each person who reached the top of those stairs was asked which of the young designers they would like to kiss - not a bad proposition as most are under 35 and could have chosen careers as models.

This scene is typical of the atmosphere at the firm set up at the end of 2004 by Egret, 46, and David West, 31. The pair left Will Alsop's practice during the crisis in which the celebrated architect handed over 40% of his company to a venture capitalist. They seem to have been on a journey of self-discovery and fun ever since.

Ten people now work for Studio Egret West, including a full-time model maker. Although Egret's diagram of his ideal practice has 12 people in it, he insists that expanding the firm has not been difficult. "There have not been any hard decisions," he says. "It's been a really pleasant, organic growth."

However unlikely this sounds, it is hard not to believe Egret, with his soft, almost inaudible, voice and earnest expression. Indeed, the practice won commissions from the beginning. At 1pm on the first day, Egret took a call in his basement flat in Islington, which he and West used as an office for the first three months. It was Jonathan Smales, director of consultant Beyond Green, and he wanted to offer them £5000 worth of consultation work in Newcastle for regeneration company Places for People. Egret says: "That was our first £5000 and suddenly we knew we had money to live off for the next month. A lot of people rang us after that and asked what we were doing. We're both good communicators so, little by little, we built up work."

This work includes being appointed architect on the high-profile Urban Splash-led redevelopment of the Park Hill Estate in Sheffield, planning a 15-year public realm strategy to overhaul the A1 in north London for Islington council - replacing Alsop - and the design of a mixed-use development in Middlehaven, Middlesbrough.

Our relationship is a bit up and down. If I can allow myself a criticism, the Big Architecture Unit became Will Alsop’s architecture, where he could fill in the colouring-in bit

Despite the youthful nature of the practice - the average age is about 32 - West and Egret are seasoned players. Egret was the design director at Alsop for 10 years, and masterminded award-winning projects such as Peckham Library and the Queen Mary Medical Research Centre in east London. West, a self-confessed self-promoter, was the brains behind Alsop's Big Architecture Unit. Some have called them an unlikely partnership but seeing them together, it is evident they have a genuine camaraderie. When Egret tells West the average age of the practice, West quips: "Thirty-two? I think it should be 31. Two people over the age of 35, you say? Sack them!" Egret finds this hilarious.

Egret has made it clear he does not want to dwell on their well-documented departure from Alsop, but the maverick does feature on his top 10 architect list, alongside living greats such as the American Steven Holl and France's Jean Nouvel. He says: "Will was probably a bit upset when I left but we were on good terms. We still work together now and the relationship is a bit up and down. That's just the way he is. If I can allow myself a criticism, the Big Architecture Unit became very much Will Alsop's architecture, where he could fill in the colouring-in bit. I did 10 years - no, I spent 10 years - and I enjoyed every minute."

Egret doesn't suffer egos gladly. The half-French architect translated documents for Lord Foster during the great man's bid for the Nîmes Médiathèque and now intends to keep away from architecture run by "personalities". He says he admires Ken Shuttleworth's pioneering partnership structure at Make, but rebukes the comparison the architectural world is determined to make between himself and Foster's former lieutenant as underrated talents that are finally stepping into the limelight. He says: "A lot of people have said, ‘Don't you resent it? Nobody is mentioning your name'. I have never had a problem with that. I don't have the ego to need that recognition."

What bugs Egret most these days is not his egocentric colleagues, but housebuilders. They are, he says, forcing poor design on the public. Like many of his colleagues, he claims that they put profit before architecture and are not willing to take a chance on innovative design. He says: "What Barratt, Redrow and all the others do is all very tedious. You come up with brilliant ideas but they don't fit with their strict diagram so you can't proceed." He continues, cautiously: "I once asked the head of a housebuilder's regeneration department: ‘Why are the flats so small and so expensive?' The answer, sadly, was because there is more value in a small flat than a larger one."

Egret intends make this problem as one of his practice's priorities in its second year, and he has clearly picked up some of his partner's confidence in believing he can enact change. He also wants to revolutionise other building types, as he did at Alsop with libraries and research centres. "We'll do schools, we'll do villages, health centres, retail parks … we'll even do sheds," he declares. He throws his head back and laughs: "We're going to keep going and keep going and keep going."