Revenue soars at Make Architects – as does directors' pay

Make Architects saw turnover rise 75% to £17.8m last year, up from £10.8m in 2006.

But the company’s results also reveal that the highest paid director – assumed to be founding director Ken Shuttleworth – saw his salary rise more than 500% from £208,000 to £1.06m.

The practice made pre-tax profits of £1.8m in the 12 months to 31 December 2007, a 65% rise on last year’s profits of £1.1m.

The remarkable growth in revenue marks a successful 2007 for Make Architects, in which it completed its renovation of 55 Baker Street and received high profile commissions to design the Candy Brothers’ £400m NoHo Square development and 30 Old Bailey for Land Securities.

In four years it has become a key player on the UK architectural scene, and now employs a similar number of architects as Wilkinson Eyre, Feilden Clegg Bradley and Carey Jones.

Key to the success of the practice is the hard-won reputation of Shuttleworth, a former partner of Lord Foster.

If it is to be assumed he is the highest-paid director in the firm he set up, his salary rose five-fold in the past year. But his staff were rewarded too – the average salary, including directors, rose to £89,748 last year up from £63,780 in 2006.