Astudio targets Asia with Hong Kong office

Astudio, Building’s Architect of the Year in 2012, is to open an Asia arm this month after just six years in business, Building can reveal.

Astudio Asia will be based in Hong Kong and is to be run by current project director Sean Weston, who will step up to the role of director of the new business.

The £1.7m-turnover Astudio has set aside £80,000 to finance the expansion and is targeting an annual turnover for the Asian arm of £2m within two years.

If achieved, that would mean the Asian business growing turnover at more than double the speed Astudio has achieved in the UK.

The company is also targeting an expansion from its 29 UK staff to up to 80 across its UK and Hong Kong offices by 2017.

Weston said the firm had already had some success in the region and has been shortlisted for a number of projects. “It’s the way that we collaborate with others - we are quite open as architects, with an innovative approach and complex geometries,” he said.

However, Astudio currently has no commissions in the region - something that it attributes, in part, to not having a base. “In China they are really demanding. They say: ‘We need to be able to call you 24/7 and see you constantly,’” Weston said.

In China they are really demanding. They say ‘we need to be able to call you 24/7’

Sean Weston, Astudio

Weston added that the region had a growing demand for sustainable design, an area of strength for the practice. “There is a good 20% of the market that is interested [in sustainability] and because the market is becoming more mature now, and because the residential market dipped a year ago, clients are after added value.”

He said the Asian arm would target the high-end commercial market, despite much of the practice’s UK work being in the public sector.

Richard Hyams, director of Astudio, added that the members of the practice have substantial experience in the high-end commercial market from previous businesses. “I’ve built probably 4 million ft2 of office space in buildings. There aren’t many practices out there that have built that much,” he said.

Hyams said the UK commercial market had been depressed and was not conducive to new entrants during the six years since Astudio was established, and doing high-end commercial projects in Asia could help open up new UK markets for the practice by building its portfolio. He said the firm was also seeking to expand into the retrofit market in the UK as a way to grow the business.

Weston added that the practice was seeking to build links to Hong Kong University – it currently has a link with Greenwich University in the UK - to boost the research and development side of the business.

“It’s [also] about being part of the scene. […] That helps with credibility - it helps on whole load of levels,” Hyams said.

He said he did not want to look at acquisitions, as it was important to grow the business with its “own vision and ethos” and avoid any cultural confusion from a merger.

However, he said the firm had been in contact with other firms in Asia about possible collaborations on projects, including Roberto Davolio, owner of local architect Paleae, who like Hyams is a former Foster + Partners staffer.

Such collaboration will be a crucial part of the firm’s initial set-up. Weston said he does not have an office to work from when he arrives in Hong Kong this month and is currently in discussion with UK engineering firms with a sizable presence in the region about the possibility of taking space in their Hong Kong offices.